“The Unselect Committee of partisan Democrats, and two very weak and pathetic RINOs, should come to the conclusion after spending many millions of dollars, that the real insurrection happened on November 3rd, the Presidential Election, not on January 6th – which was a day of protesting the Fake Election results” – Statement from the Former Autocrat.

I stand with @DanScavino!

— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) October 6, 2021

Politico:  “Richard Donoghue — formerly the Justice Department’s second-in-command — appeared for a closed-door interview on Friday with the select panel investigating Jan. 6, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

“The interview comes as the panel accelerates its probe of the events leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Donoghue’s tenure at the Justice Department in the final days of the Trump administration has drawn scrutiny from congressional investigators as they explore the former president’s attempts to pressure the department to interfere in the 2020 election.

“A spokesperson for the panel declined to comment. A lawyer representing Donoghue did not respond to a request for comment.  Donoghue also completed a closed-door interview with the Senate Judiciary Committee at the beginning of August.”

An Economist/YouGov survey published Wednesday finds Democrats leading Republicans 43% to 36% on the 2022 generic congressional ballot, and that on the question of “How likely or unlikely do you think it is that Donald Trump will be re-instated as President before the end of 2021?” among Republican respondents 11% and 13% answered “Very likely” or “Somewhat likely”, respectively.

“Former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and other top aides subpoenaed by the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack are expected to defy orders for documents and testimony related to 6 January, according to a source familiar with the matter. The move to defy the subpoenas would mark the first major investigative hurdle faced by the select committee and threatens to touch off an extended legal battle as the former president pushes some of his most senior aides to undercut the inquiry. All four Trump aides targeted by the select committee – Meadows, deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, strategist Steve Bannon and defense department aide Kash Patel – are expected to resist the orders because Trump is preparing to direct them to do so, the source said. The select committee is expected in the coming weeks to authorize still further subpoenas to Trump officials and other individuals connected to the Capitol attack. The select committee had issued the subpoenas under the threat of criminal prosecution in the event of non-compliance, warning that the penalty for defying a congressional subpoena would be far graver under the Biden administration than during the Trump presidency.”

“But increasingly concerned with the far-reaching nature of the 6 January investigation, Trump and his legal team, led by former deputy White House counsel Patrick Philbin, are moving to instruct the attorneys for the subpoenaed aides to defy the orders. The basis for Trump’s pressing aides to not cooperate is being mounted on grounds of executive privilege, the source said, over claims that sensitive conversations about what he knew in advance of plans to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory should remain secret” – The Guardian.

CNN also reports “More than a week after subpoenaing former Donald Trump aide Dan Scavino to cooperate with its investigation into the January 6 riot at the US Capitol, the House select committee investigating the attack has been unable to physically serve the subpoena to him, according to multiple sources familiar with the effort.”

WWLT: “Jeffrey Smith has died following a lengthy battle with COVID-19. The 51-year-old Fairfield Township man had been in an intensive care unit for months. Smith was diagnosed with COVID-19 on July 9. He was admitted into the hospital six days later and has been on a ventilator for several weeks. He died Sept. 25, WLWT confirmed. Smith’s case made national headlines, as his wife, Julie Smith, wanted him to be treated with the controversial experimental drug ivermectin.”

“Julie Smith wanted her husband to be treated with ivermectin. She said despite her husband being treated with Remdesivir, steroids and plasma, his condition continued to decline. She said she read articles in other cases where COVID-19 patients’ conditions reportedly improved after being given ivermectin. The Smiths received a prescription for Ivermectin from Dr. Fred Wagshul, a pulmonologist out of Centerville. But officials at UC West Chester – where Jeffrey Smith was staying — refused to treat him with the drug. That prompted a lawsuit from Julie Smith, who got a temporary order from Butler County Common Pleas Judge Gregory Howard. That judge ordered doctors to administer the drug, but that order only lasted 14 days.”

“But Butler County Judge Michael Oster later denied a preliminary injunction request, saying while it is impossible not to feel sympathetic toward the patient and his family, the court made the decision in accordance with Ohio law. ‘While the case at bar has emotion to it, the following decision will be strictly based upon the standards of law on a preliminary injunction case. As such, public policy would not favor the granting of the injunction by clear and convincing evidence.'”

“Honestly, I just hope we don’t have to hit rock-bottom for America to realize we are slowly losing to the Communists because that’s exactly what’s happening in my opinion,” Junior, a person who has not just hit rock bottom but who’s living there, tells Sean Hannity.

Attorney General Merrick Garland instructed the FBI to work with local law enforcement to address the sharp rise in violence and threats targeting local school boards and school officials attempting to deal with student and staff safety during the coronavirus pandemic, the Washington Post reports.

“While spirited debate about policy matters is protected under our Constitution, that protection does not extend to threats of violence or efforts to intimidate individuals based on their views,” Garland wrote. “Threats against public servants are not only illegal, they run counter to our nation’s core values. Those who dedicate their time and energy to ensuring that our children receive a proper education in a safe environment deserve to be able to do their work without fear for their safety.”

Less than a week ago, the National School Boards Association sent a letter to President Biden entreating him to increase protections for school boards and their members who have been the targets of threats, intimidation and violence as they debate the need for things like vaccine and mask mandates in their schools.

Reuters:  “President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that his Democrats might make an exception to a U.S. Senate rule to allow them to extend the government’s borrowing authority without Republican help, which could head off an economically crippling debt default.  As a stalemate between Republicans and Democrats showed no sign of abating, Biden said there was a ‘real possibility’ that his party would bypass the long-standing supermajority voting requirement known as the filibuster for dealing with the debt limit.

“That would allow Democrats, who hold a razor-thin Senate majority, to suspend the federal government’s $28.4 trillion borrowing cap without Republican votes.  Asked if Democrats would remove the filibuster solely to raise the debt limit, Biden said: ‘Oh I think that’s a real possibility.'”

“Many Democrats have argued that the Senate should dump the filibuster entirely, saying it prevents progress on climate change, voting rights and other priorities.  Centrist Democratic senators including Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have said they are not willing to do so, leaving the party short of the votes they need to change the rule.  But Democrats now are considering dropping the filibuster just for dealing with the debt limit, several senators said. Manchin declined to comment when asked about that possibility on Tuesday prior to Biden’s statement.”

The Republican-led Arkansas state house passed a bill that would allow any employee to opt out of his/her employer’s vaccine mandate for any reason, undercutting one of President Biden’s key incentives for getting inoculated, the Associated Press reports.

Passed on a 68-23 vote, the measure is being touted by Arkansas Republicans as a way to counter the claimed overreach of the federal government trying to motivate vaccine hesitant people to get the shot.  “The intent of this bill is to protect employees from that overreach,” one of the bill’s sponsors, Republican legislator Josh Bryant, said.

Like the President’s suggested policy to employers, the Arkansas bill will allow employees to opt out if they get weekly coronavirus tests.  Unlike Biden’s policy, the Arkansas one would allow employees to opt out if they can prove they have coronavirus antibodies. 

“Donald Trump’s post-office online engagement is hitting new lows, according to exclusive data from SocialFlow provided to Axios. It helps explain why the former president recently asked a federal judge to have Twitter restore his signature account” Axios reports.

“Trump has tried press releases styled as tweets, launched his own ‘platform’ and held campaign-style rallies, yet the numbers suggest his social media megaphone has no true replacement. While Trump content consumption predictably went down during the winter and spring, after he left office, his profile has dropped even further in recent months. Clicks to Trump content dropped 37% in August and September compared to the two months prior, according to the data. It measures clicks from social media posts referred from SocialFlow’s network of publishers.”

“The decline marked a 50% dip compared to March – the first month Trump free-fell from the news after February’s impeachment trial. What’s going on: The decrease is partly explained by the fact that Trump is being written about less – there were 26% fewer stories during the last two months, compared to March and April, according to exclusive data supplied to Axios by NewsWhip. But interest in those Trump stories also is going down. Per article, they are averaging 28% less engagement on social media in August and September, the data shows.”

“This morning, as you are no doubt aware, agents with the FBI and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York executed a search warrant at the headquarters of the Sergeants Benevolent Association and the residence of President Ed Mullins. The nature and scope of this criminal investigation has yet to be determined. However, it is clear that President Mullins is apparently the target of the federal investigation. We have no reason to believe that any other member of the SBA is involved or targeted in this matter. The SBA has and will continue to fully cooperate with law enforcement officials heading the investigation in all respects.”

“Given the severity of this matter and the uncertainty of its outcome, the SBA Executive Board has requested that President Mullins resign from his position as SBA President. This evening, President Mullins has agreed to tender his resignation as President of the SBA. Like all of us, Ed Mullins is entitled to the presumption of innocence, and we ask you to withhold judgment until all the facts have been established. However, the day to day functioning and the important business of the SBA cannot be distracted by the existence of this investigation. We will continue to keep you apprised as we learn more about the reasons for the investigation. In the interim, we pledge to remain transparent and keep the SBA membership apprised of all developments” – NYPD SBA memo.

“New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu called for a state lawmaker who’s repeatedly pushed COVID-19 misinformation to be stripped from his leadership position after he blasted out an email to colleagues suggesting that the coronavirus vaccine contains a ‘living organism with tentacles’ and darkens the eyes of newborns” The Daily Beast reports.

“‘I have repeatedly expressed directly to Speaker Packard about the need to remove Representative Weyler from this position of leadership,’ the Republican governor said in a statement Monday. ‘Disseminating this misinformation clearly shows a detachment from reality and lack of judgment.’ Sununu’s statement referring to ‘absurd emails’ from the chair of the finance committee – which recently voted to table $27 million in federal vaccine aid for the state – come after Weyler blasted colleagues’ inboxes with materials rife with COVID conspiracy theories, including a document entitled ‘The Vaccine Death Report’ claiming vaccines were ‘murdering millions of people.'”

“The email from the legislator contained a 52-page ‘report’ with disinformation on COVID-19, including claims that ‘unknown, octopus-like creatures are being injected into millions of children worldwide.’ The report also made claims that 5G technology had somehow been inserted into the vaccine to control people’s thoughts and called the pope and others ‘at the top’ of the Roman Catholic Church ‘satanists’ and ‘luciferans’ for backing public health measures. The report additionally made the wild suggestion that the babies of vaccinated parents in Mexico were ‘transhuman’ – born with ‘pitch-black eyes’ and undergoing accelerated aging. ‘It’s all one huge puppet theatre, where the majority of the people – even most of those who are complicit – haven’t got the slightest clue what is going on, and how everyone is being played,’ the report states. When asked about the report, Weyler responded to The Daily Beast in an email: ‘No comment.'”

Cleveland.com: “Max Miller, the White House staffer under former President Donald Trump who is running for Congress in Northeast Ohio, sued former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham on Tuesday over her accusations that Miller abused her while the two dated. Miller also asked a judge in Cleveland to order Grisham not to repeat the claims she first made in an op-ed in the Washington Post, including preventing her from discussing it during interviews she had scheduled later Tuesday with CNN’s Jake Tapper and Chris Cuomo. Grisham appeared on ‘The Lead with Jake Tapper’ on Tuesday afternoon and told the host there was ‘abuse in every way there’ during her relationship with Miller, whom she did not name in the op-ed.”

“‘I didn’t put his name in there on purpose because I’ve moved on,’ Grisham said during the interview with Tapper. ‘If there’s anything I can take away, I’m almost stronger than ever now, and no one is ever going to abuse me again in any way, shape or form.’ Larry Zukerman, a Cleveland-based attorney representing Miller, filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. The 13-page complaint says Grisham, in a Washington Post op-ed published Tuesday, made ‘libelous and defamatory statements’ that Miller abused her toward the end of their relationship. Miller says that Grisham made the claims to harm him and to sell more copies of her memoir, titled ‘I’ll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House,’ which also published Tuesday. In a statement to the Plain Dealer on Tuesday, Zukerman said Grisham’s allegations that Miller was abusive and violent toward her were ‘absolutely untrue.'”

I think parents should decide what their children are taught in schools. That is all.

— Mike Pompeo (@mikepompeo) October 5, 2021

Wall Street Journal:  “Nikki Haley calls Donald Trump a friend and says she would consult with him before embarking on a White House bid, but the former United Nations ambassador disagrees with the former president when it comes to the outcome of the 2020 election.  ‘There was fraud in the election, but I don’t think that the numbers were so big that it swayed the vote in the wrong direction,’ Ms. Haley said in an interview ahead of a Tuesday evening appearance at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif.

The National Cathedral will ring its bells 700 times, with each peal representing 1,000 people who have died of coronavirus since the start of the pandemic.  The Cathedral is undertaking this in conjunction with the exhibit of 700,000 flags being placed on the National Mall in remembrance of those who have died.

Fox 5 Atlanta: “One of the men accused of chasing and murdering Ahmaud Arbery is fighting to ban certain photo evidence from his upcoming trial. Travis McMichael and his attorneys have requested that the court ban a photo of his old Georgia flag-theme vanity license plate, which includes a Confederate emblem. In response, the state asked the court to deny the motion, saying the plates were on the truck at the time of the incident when Arbery was shot and killed.”

“Earlier this month, a Georgia judge ruled that Arbery’s mental health records could not be used as trial evidence by the defense, ruling that his medical privacy, even in death, trumped the rights of the men standing trial to a robust defense. And he concluded that a registered nurse’s ‘highly questionable diagnosis’ that Arbery suffered from mental illness during his first and only visit to a mental health services provider in 2018 could unfairly prejudice a trial jury. ‘There is no evidence that the victim was suffering from any mental health issue, or had otherwise decompensated, on February 23, 2020,’ the date Arbery was killed, the judge’s ruling said.”

A bipartisan group of lawyers in California is pushing the state bar association to revoke the membership for John Eastman, a Donald Trump lawyer who produced a memo giving false legal rationale that would cover then-Vice President Mike Pence if he wanted to refuse to certify the Electoral College vote and reinstall Trump to the presidency for a second term, CNN reports.

The letter, signed by more than two dozen former government officials, elected officials, academics and scholars, urges the bar to disbar Eastman violated the Rules of Professional Conduct “through his actions in late 2020 and in early January 2021 to assist his client Donald J. Trump in attempts to discredit and overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.”

The Eastman memo gave a six-step process by which Pence could act to keep Trump in the presidency, Eastman claimed, by voiding the Electoral College electors assigned by certain strategic states.  The rationale has been dismissed by legal and constitutional experts as flimsy and unjustifiable, however, Trump reportedly did consider it at the time it was presented to him.