Politics
Texts Show Ginni Thomas’s Embrace of Conspiracy Theories
Two days after the 2020 election, Virginia Thomas, the spouse of Justice Clarence Thomas, texted an previous good friend, Mark Meadows, the chief of employees to President Donald J. Trump.
She despatched messages that had been making the rounds on pro-Trump websites, the place anger over the election echoed her personal uncooked emotions, together with this passage: “Biden crime household & poll fraud co-conspirators (elected officers, bureaucrats, social media censorship mongers, faux stream media reporters, and so forth) are being arrested & detained for poll fraud proper now & over coming days, & shall be residing in barges off GITMO to face navy tribunals for sedition.”
Then she added of this fanciful, if chilling, set of conspiracy theories: “I hope that is true.”
She texted Mr. Meadows once more the following day. “Don’t concede,” she wrote. “It takes time for the military who’s gathering for his again.”
The messages have been amongst a flurry of textual content site visitors between Ms. Thomas and Mr. Meadows that was revealed this previous week, a part of a trove of paperwork beforehand turned over to the Home committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol. (Ms. Thomas has overtly opposed the committee and known as for Republicans who serve on it to be expelled from the Home Republican convention.)
A tough-line conservative activist, Ms. Thomas had lengthy been seen with suspicion by the Republican institution. But her affect had risen in the course of the Trump administration, particularly after Mr. Meadows, who like Ms. Thomas has roots within the Tea Celebration motion, grew to become chief of employees. Now, an examination of her texts, woven along with latest revelations of the depth of her efforts to overturn the election, exhibits how firmly she was embedded within the conspiratorial fringe of right-wing politics, whilst that fringe was drawing ever nearer to the middle of Republican energy.
The disclosures add urgency to questions on how Ms. Thomas could have leveraged her marriage to Justice Thomas, who could be ruling on elections circumstances all through the battle over the 2020 vote and past. As his spouse agitated for Mr. Trump and his aides to show apart the election outcomes, Justice Thomas was Mr. Trump’s staunchest ally on the Supreme Courtroom and has remained so. This 12 months, in January, he was the one justice who famous a dissent when the courtroom allowed the discharge of data from the Trump White Home associated to the Jan. 6 assault.
Calls intensified this previous week for Justice Thomas to step other than such circumstances. Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, mentioned on Friday that Justice Thomas “must recuse himself from any case associated to the Jan. 6 investigation, and may Donald Trump run once more, any case associated to the 2024 election.”
The Thomases have been a fiercely shut couple for many years. In his memoir, Justice Thomas wrote that they have been “one being — an amalgam” and known as her his “greatest good friend.” She usually makes use of comparable language to explain her husband.
In one in every of his texts to Ms. Thomas, Mr. Meadows known as the election a “battle of fine versus evil” and added: “Evil all the time seems to be just like the victor till the King of Kings triumphs. Don’t develop weary in effectively doing. The battle continues.”
“Thanks!! Wanted that!” Ms. Thomas replied. “This plus a dialog with my greatest good friend simply now… I’ll attempt to preserve holding on. America is price it!”
Ms. Thomas’s texts to Mr. Meadows faucet right into a deep effectively of debunked conspiracy theories. References to the rounding up of elected officers, reporters and bureaucrats for navy tribunals at Guantánamo Bay are drawn from QAnon, which imagines Devil-worshipping leaders working the nation and trafficking youngsters.
But within the days after the election, Ms. Thomas had much more standing to take motion than most who embraced such canards. As Mr. Trump courted Justice Thomas throughout his years in workplace — interested by his reputation among the many Republican base and likewise about rumors that he may retire, aides mentioned — the justice’s spouse gained rising entry to the White Home.
Although some Trump aides got here to view her with such suspicion that they assembled opposition analysis meant to break her standing with Mr. Trump — amongst different issues, she pressed the president to rent individuals who couldn’t cross background checks, the aides mentioned — her clout grew with time.
The arc of her political profession had additionally led her to a robust new platform. Ms. Thomas had began out working for institution right-leaning organizations just like the Heritage Basis and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. However her want for extra radical change had led her to the Tea Celebration, and more and more to the occasion’s fringes. Mr. Meadows, who was appointed chief of employees in March 2020, held comparable views and has attended conferences of Groundswell, a bunch that Ms. Thomas based in 2013 after consulting with Stephen Okay. Bannon, who would later grow to be Mr. Trump’s chief strategist.
With their model of conservatism ascendant, Ms. Thomas had been appointed in 2019 to the nine-member board of CNP Motion, an offshoot of a secretive however influential conservative group known as the Council for Nationwide Coverage, whose membership consists of leaders of the Nationwide Rifle Affiliation, the Household Analysis Council and the Federalist Society.
The New York Instances Journal, in a profile of the Thomases printed final month, detailed CNP Motion’s assertive function in efforts to overturn the presidential election. That included circulating a doc to its members in November 2020 urging them to strain Republican lawmakers in swing states to problem the outcomes and appoint alternate slates of electors: “Demand that they not abandon their Constitutional obligations throughout a time corresponding to this,” the doc mentioned.
In one in every of her texts, the contents of which have been earlier reported by The Washington Publish and CBS Information, Ms. Thomas despatched Mr. Meadows a hyperlink to a video that includes Steve Pieczenik, a former State Division official who was claiming that mail-in ballots had been watermarked as a part of an elaborate authorities sting operation to catch voter fraud. Mr. Pieczenik beforehand appeared on a webcast with the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and claimed that the 2012 faculty bloodbath in Newtown, Conn., was a false-flag operation, a notion that has been totally debunked.
On Nov. 19, Ms. Thomas promoted the efforts of Sidney Powell, the Trump lawyer who spent a lot of the postelection interval spreading conspiracy theories. “Sidney and her group are getting inundated with proof of fraud,” Ms. Thomas wrote to Mr. Meadows. “Make a plan. Launch the Kraken and save us from the left taking America down.”
That very same day, Ms. Powell held a information convention with Rudolph W. Giuliani, one in every of Mr. Trump’s legal professionals, on the Republican Nationwide Committee headquarters in Washington. There, she laid out baseless allegations {that a} cabal that included Chinese language software program companies, worldwide shell firms and the financier George Soros had conspired to hack America’s voting machines.
At the moment, Ms. Powell was within the early phases of getting ready 4 federal lawsuits that might current this purported plot as a motive for judges to overturn the election outcomes. She nicknamed her fits the “Krakens,” referring to a large octopus-like sea creature.
Virginia Thomas’ textual content messages. Within the weeks earlier than the Capitol riot, Virginia Thomas, the spouse of Supreme Courtroom Justice Clarence Thomas, despatched a number of textual content messages imploring Mark Meadows, President Donald J. Trump’s chief of employees, to take steps to overturn the vote. The messages seem to have uncovered a rift inside the Home committee investigating the assault.
Capitol Riot’s Aftermath: Key Developments
By Dec. 10, John Eastman, a former Supreme Courtroom clerk for Justice Thomas and a detailed good friend of the Thomases, went on “Warfare Room,” a podcast hosted by Mr. Bannon.
Mr. Eastman urged the Supreme Courtroom to intervene and mentioned the nation was within the midst of a constitutional disaster. Behind the scenes, he was advising Mr. Trump and his marketing campaign on a proposal thought to be outlandish by many different legal professionals — that Vice President Mike Pence may refuse to simply accept swing-state electoral votes and ship them again to the state legislatures when he presided over the certification of the election in a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6. Mr. Eastman’s function would solely grow to be totally clear months later.
Across the similar time, CNP Motion, with Ms. Thomas on its board, circulated a report titled “5 States and the Election Irregularities and Points,” specializing in 5 swing states the place Mr. Trump and his allies have been already urgent litigation.
The report warned that point was working out for the courts to “declare the elections null and void”; an accompanying e-newsletter pressed for swing states to show again the voters’ will and identify an alternate slate of electors. Cleta Mitchell, a good friend of Ms. Thomas who was one of many election legal professionals advising Mr. Trump, was a co-author of the report.
Ms. Thomas has not responded to requests for remark. In not too long ago printed remarks, she downplayed her function at CNP Motion but additionally mentioned she had attended the Jan. 6 rally on the Ellipse in Washington and “was disillusioned and pissed off that there was violence that occurred following a peaceable gathering.”
One of many rally organizers, Dustin Stockton, informed The Instances that Ms. Thomas had performed a mediating function amongst completely different factions of organizers forward of the rally. Ms. Thomas disputed that account and mentioned she “performed no function with those that have been planning and main the Jan. 6 occasions,” a declare undercut by her communications with Mr. Meadows, who was deeply concerned in planning the protests that led as much as the storming of the Capitol.
A variety of her allies and associates have rallied round her in latest weeks. Two fellow members of the Council for Nationwide Coverage — Edwin Meese III, who was lawyer normal within the Reagan administration, and J. Kenneth Blackwell, a former Ohio secretary of state — printed a joint protection of the Thomases earlier this 12 months. Current reporting about her, they wrote, amounted to “cancel tradition taken to a degree that threatens our establishments of presidency” and was an try “to delegitimize a distinguished and senior member of the best-functioning department of the federal authorities by smearing his spouse.”
But within the fast aftermath of Jan. 6, the Council for Nationwide Coverage circulated in its e-newsletter a memo, written by one in every of its members, that outlined methods to make the Capitol riot appear extra palatable. “Drive the narrative that it was principally peaceable protests,” the memo suggested. “Amplify the considerations of the protesters and provides them legitimacy.”
On Jan. 10, Ms. Thomas texted Mr. Meadows to specific her disgust that Mr. Pence had not gone together with efforts to maintain Mr. Trump in energy. “We live in what seems like the top of America,” she wrote. “Most of us are disgusted with the VP and are in listening mode to see the place to battle with our groups. Those that attacked the Capitol should not consultant of our nice groups of patriots for DJT!! Wonderful instances. The tip of liberty.”
In her speeches and communications with different activists, Ms. Thomas often invokes her husband’s identify. Final summer time, she invited Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a Republican, to talk at a gathering of Groundswell, which she known as a “cone of silence coalition.” In an e mail to Mr. DeSantis’s employees, which was obtained via a public data request by the watchdog group American Oversight, she wrote that the justice had been involved with the governor “on varied issues of late.”
“We begin and finish every assembly with prayer, however the Left has all of the cultural establishments now and appear to be weaponizing them towards conservatives and fundamental freedoms,” she mentioned in her e mail, including that she hoped Mr. DeSantis may “choose us up and refocus us — as Washington isn’t the place our hope lies.”
Politics
Soros DAs suffer 12 big defeats, billionaire's agenda faces uncertain future
Americans are turning the page on the woke left’s approach to crime, if this week’s district attorney elections are anything to go by.
A majority of the 25 George Soros-linked district attorneys on the ballot this week were defeated, signaling a backlash against progressive policies that critics say are to blame for a surge in crime across the country in recent years.
Many of the losing Soros candidates were running for office in deep blue jurisdictions and suffered heavy losses despite Vice President Harris clocking up comfortable majorities in those same areas – indicating that a large portion of Democrats are also done with the progressive Left’s soft on crime experiment, according to the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, a pro-police non-profit that tracked the 25 races.
Politics
A comic, Trump and Alpha Male walk into an election
Alpha Male has won.
What happens now?
Comedian Brent Terhune has for years satirized the angry, working-class white man who rails against libtards and expresses unyielding devotion to Donald Trump. His monologues resound with right-wing rants and epitomize toxic masculinity in a character he calls Alpha Male. But the aggrieved American man now rides on a sense of vindication in celebrating Trump’s return to the White House. And Terhune wonders what that means for his character and the nation.
“I think he’ll go from being a sore loser to a sore winner,” said Terhune, who lives outside Indianapolis in a blue-collar neighborhood. “Alpha Male will always exist. He was there before Trump. He doesn’t go away. He’s your dad, your cousin. We all feel misunderstood and betrayed at times. But he’s got to find a way to justify everything Trump and MAGA do. It’s a weird hurdle, and a way for me to get out my frustrations.”
Terhune — a former Boy Scout and a Catholic-school-raised liberal — abhors Trump and is nothing like his alter ego. Alpha Male, who wears a russet beard, wraparound sunglasses and a backward ball cap, is enamored with the likes of Tucker Carlson and has no tolerance for gender studies, critical race theory or what he sees as the liberal radicalization of a country that has succumbed to snowflakes and bibliophiles.
The character is at once emblematic and a caricature of the Joe Rogan demographic, bros and aging bros, mostly white but with a growing number of Latinos, who revere Elon Musk and march to Trump’s crass, weaving rhetoric.
“His people will be encouraged,” Terhune said of the president-elect, suggesting that the most extreme of Trump’s followers will become more of a threat to democracy, civil rights and gender equality than during his first term.
“He’s an embodiment of who they are,” he said. “They believe he hates the same things they do. They’re willing to excuse anything and everything for their guy. There’ll be no repercussions.”
Trump and his allies ran a high-testosterone, anti-immigrant, protect-the-economy campaign that appealed to ranchers, mechanics, pastors, billionaires, college students and the radical Proud Boys. Musk — who has 204 million followers on X — urged men to turn out and vote, posting a militant reference on the day of the election: “The cavalry has arrived. Men are voting in record numbers. They now realize everything is at stake.”
Musk reposted an artist’s depiction in which he, muscle-bound and stripped to the waist, resembles the Hulk carrying an American flag. Rogan sits atop Musk’s shoulders lifting Trump toward the sky in a trinity that evokes both a savior complex and hyper-masculinity.
Such imagery suits Alpha Male. Terhune’s character does not apologize. He does not equivocate. He represents, said Terhune, who was profiled in The Times last year, men who feel empowered by Trump’s showman brashness and the belief that he shares their rage and bewilderment at a left-wing, woke society that conspires to leave them behind.
Alpha Male was born out of what Terhune saw as the hypocrisy of conservatives who espouse American ideals, such as freedom of speech and religion, but attack anyone opposed their prescribed views. The character’s first appearance came when Terhune posted “Redneck Burns Nikes” in reaction to then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick taking a knee in 2016 during the national anthem to protest racism. That was followed by Alpha Male diatribes on book banning, the Black “Little Mermaid,” Trump’s mug shot, ruminations on Hunter Biden’s laptop and swipes at President Biden, whom he calls “Papa Long Hugs.”
Alpha Male, whose videos have had millions of views on social media, has become a way for Terhune to understand and navigate the nation’s divisions. The character is a funny, if unsettling, mirror who at times — like Archie Bunker before him — earns a degree of empathy. Terhune’s irony and satire can be so sly that some people don’t get the joke, thinking that Alpha Male is not an act but the comic’s true self.
“Is this satire or is this guy really as deranged as he sounds?” one man posted on Facebook.
Like many liberals, Terhune, who spoke by phone from his home on the day after the election, was finding it difficult to reconcile the many ruptures and recriminations that have jolted the country since Trump’s first campaign eight years ago.
Trump’s recent victory is “a shocking but not so shocking revelation of where we are as a country,” said Terhune, the son of a lunch lady and a father who trucked fuel to construction sites. “A lot of people were fed up with the last four years, but this says that people don’t think past themselves. It is their need to put party over country for perceived patriotism. I’m a straight white guy. I’ll probably be fine. But what about people who aren’t straight and white?”
Through it all, though, the focus of Terhune’s Alpha Male bits will stay on Trump and what he has shaped. In a recent video about Trump working at McDonald’s, Alpha Male says, “Mr. Trump doesn’t need to work there. He was just sticking it to lying Kamala Harris. … There’s no proof she even worked there. Hell, are we even sure she was the attorney general of Commie-fornia? No. Are we even sure she was vice president? No. Nobody knows. There’s no proof.”
In another skit, Alpha Male is the driver in the garbage truck Trump rode in after Biden’s verbal gaffe suggesting that Trump’s supporters were garbage: “You done pissed me off, Joe, and if being a patriot is what they’re calling garbage these days, then, yeah, I am garbage cause I’m going to show up to the polls wearing a garbage bag to show you what us white trash can do.”
Alpha Male, sometimes tearing up when he recounts his many grievances, mythologizes Trump, a leader who survived an assassin’s bullet, an army of prosecutors, 34 felony counts and endless scandal.
After what authorities said would have been a second assassination attempt against Trump at his golf course in Florida, Terhune reimagines the incident in a video in which Trump grabs a golf club to deflect bullets: “The first one he sent flying went back to the shooter, knocked his Bud Light clean out of his hand and he took off scared. And he was running away and there was an envelope of cash that fell out of his pocket. You could see on it, it said, ‘Pay off from the Dumb-ocrats.’ It was then that the Secret Service finally got off their lazy asses and did something.”
That is the kind of fervor — James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” played at the Republican National Convention in July — that has surrounded Trump since he swaggered onto the nation’s political stage.
“He can do no wrong,” said Terhune, mimicking his alter ego. “If you don’t like it, deal with it.”
For Tehrune, the only way to deal with it is to keep channeling Alpha Male’s deep well of suspicion and anger.
Politics
More than half of Harris voters want to relocate following Trump win: survey
More than 50% of voters for Vice President Kamala Harris say they want to move following Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election, according to a survey commissioned by StorageUnits.com.
Storage Units surveyed 1,837 Harris voters on Nov. 6 to determine how many would like to relocate – and who actually plans to – and the top concerns of those who voted against Trump.
Of those surveyed, 44% would like to move, but probably won’t, while 5% said they will definitely move and another 5% said they probably will. Those who would like to move, but probably won’t, cited personal finances, family and community ties as reasons they will stay in place.
Of the 10% planning to move or seriously considering it, 90% are looking into moving to another country, with the top choices being Canada, the United Kingdom and Mexico. California, New York and Colorado were the top three choices for those considering moving to another state.
5 MISTAKES THAT DOOMED KAMALA HARRIS’ CAMPAIGN AGAINST TRUMP
According to the survey, the top three reasons Harris voters want to relocate are concerns that a federal abortion ban will be enacted, an increase in racial inequality and progressive rights will be overturned.
Abortion access at the federal level, which was one of the Democrats’ top campaign issues, has been an area of concern for many Dem voters despite Trump stating he would not enact a federal abortion ban and reiterating that he agrees with the decision being left in the states’ hands after Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court on June 24, 2022.
Other top areas of concern include: reduction in healthcare access, increased social inequality, lack of gun regulation and the weakening of public education.
“Some Harris voters who are experiencing fear, anxiety, and concern following the election results may elect to shift from a red to a blue state with friendlier LGBTQ+ and/or less restrictive abortion laws. However, there are a number of factors influencing any potential moves, such as cost of living, job availability, and housing prices,” Realtor Jo Ann Bauer told Storage Units.
FOX NEWS VOTER ANALYSIS: IS THIS A CHANGE ELECTION? TOP ISSUES AND MOOD OF THE NATION AS VOTERS WEIGH IN
Of all the generations surveyed, Gen Z had the highest number of Harris voters saying they will definitely or probably move (nearly 20%) when compared to Millennials, Gen Xers and Boomers.
Gen Z also had the least number of participants say they have “no interest in moving” at about 30%.
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Trump won the 2024 election decisively, garnering at least 301 electoral votes over Harris’ 226 and beating Harris by more than 5 million in the popular vote.
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