Trumper Doug Mastriano sues Oklahoma historian for defamation

OVER HIS UNIV. OF NEW BRUNSWICK, CANADA, PHD THESIS

Emma Murphy, Pennsylvania Capital-Star
September 21, 2024 

Doug Mastriano Yong Kim/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma historian being sued for defamation by a Pennsylvania state lawmaker is seeking to have the lawsuit dismissed on the grounds that the legislator is trying to curtail free speech rights.

James Gregory Jr., a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Oklahoma, is being sued by Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano, (R-Franklin), for defamation after Gregory criticized Mastriano’s academic research and raised concerns about its integrity.

Mastriano sued Gregory and nearly two dozen other defendants in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma in May, but the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE, filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit on Thursday. The organization, which advocates for free speech and free thought rights, is representing Gregory.

“The First Amendment means all Americans have the right to criticize public officials, no matter how angry that criticism makes them,” said Greg Greubel, FIRE senior attorney, in a statement. “Politicians should be concerned about legislating for the people, not suing critics when their feelings get hurt.”

The lawsuit alleges that Mastriano is “the victim of a multi-year racketeering and antitrust enterprise” that seeks to steal, use and “debunk his work” that is worth at least $10 million in “tourism-related events, validated museum artifacts, book, media, television and movie deals.”

Mastriano is a decorated military veteran and a well-respected academic, who has published three books, two multinational studies and over 30 articles on “historic, military or strategic matters,” according to the lawsuit.

According to the lawsuit, Mastriano alleges a conspiracy to try to “steal” his Ph.D. in U.S. military history, his book sales, lucrative speaking engagements and other professional opportunities.

The lawsuit alleges that Gregory began to attempt to debunk Mastriano’s archeological research in 2019 and claimed the work was a “fraud.” The complaint prompted an investigation into Mastriano. Gregory, meanwhile, released his own book entitled “Unraveling The Myth of Sgt. York: The Other Sixteen.”

Mastriano and his Tulsa-based attorney did not respond to requests for comment by deadline.

According to Gregory’s motion to dismiss, Gregory first read Mastriano’s published work on World War I hero Sgt. Alvin York while he was an undergraduate student at OU.

Gregory reported over 200 concerns of academic fraud and inaccuracies to the University of New Brunswick in Canada, where Mastriano earned his Ph.D., in 2022, according to the lawsuit. Gregory said he had no knowledge of Mastriano’s political ambitions at the time and was simply doing his duty as a historian “to seek out the truth and correct the record.”

The motion to dismiss the case against Gregory argues that criticizing the work of a fellow historian is not defamation or racketeering and that the First Amendment and Oklahoma law are meant to protect Gregory’s right to question a public official’s scholarship.

“Historians arrive at the truth by debating ideas, inviting skepticism, and challenging assumptions and sources,” Gregory said in a statement. “By trying to silence that debate, Mastriano is literally on the wrong side of history — and history will prevail.”

In a statement, FIRE said Mastriano’s lawsuit is “intended to chill speech by forcing the speaker to defend themself against costly and time-consuming litigation.”

The group argues that the defamation claim should be dismissed in part because of Oklahoma’s Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, or anti-SLAPP, law and because public debate among historians is not a violation of antitrust law.

FIRE said the Oklahoma Citizens Participation Act, passed in 2014 allows quick dismissals of lawsuits targeting free speech and holds the plaintiff responsible for paying the defendant’s legal fees.

“James’ plight is a perfect example of why robust anti-SLAPP protections are vital to expressive freedom,” Greubel said in a statement. “Otherwise, the First Amendment is nothing more than a luxury for those who can afford to fight off an expensive lawsuit.”

Gregory is also the director of the William A. Brookshire Military Museum at Louisiana State University and an adjunct at that university, FIRE said.

Mastriano went on to run for governor of Pennsylvania in 2022. He was not elected. In his lawsuit he alleges that Gregory’s criticisms of his scholarship led to Pennsylvanians deciding not to vote for him.

FIRE’s motion to dismiss argues Mastriano’s lawsuit should be thrown out as he failed to act within the one year statute of limitations, which would have expired in April, as required by Oklahoma law for defamation claims, among other rebuttals of the lawsuit.


Oklahoma Voice is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oklahoma Voice maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janelle Stecklein for questions: info@oklahomavoice.com. Follow Oklahoma Voice on Facebook and X.

Pennsylvania Capital-Star is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kim Lyons for questions: info@penncapital-star.com. Follow Pennsylvania Capital-Star on Facebook and X.

Amid campaign, Mastriano's disputed dissertation made public

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for Doug Mastriano 

AS AMERIKAN AS APPLE PIE

White nationalism is a political ideology that mainstreams racist conspiracy theories

Sara Kamali, Visiting Research Scholar at the Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara

Sun, September 24, 2023

THE CONVERSATION

U.S. President Joe Biden delivers a prime-time speech on Sept. 1, 2022, in Philadelphia. Alex Wong/Getty Images

In September 2022, President Joe Biden convened a summit called United We Stand to denounce the “venom and violence” of white nationalism ahead of the midterm elections.

His remarks repeated the theme of his prime-time speech in Philadelphia on Sept. 1, 2022, during which he warned that America’s democratic values are at stake.

“We must be honest with each other and with ourselves,” Biden said. “Too much of what’s happening in our country today is not normal. Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.”

Former President Donald Trump embraces Kari Lake, the Arizona GOP candidate for governor, at a rally on July 22, 2022. Mario Tama/Getty Images

While that message may resonate among many Democratic voters, it’s unclear whether it will have any impact on any Republicans whom Biden described as “dominated and intimidated” by former President Donald Trump, or on independent voters who have played decisive roles in elections, and will continue to do so, particularly as their numbers increase.

It’s also unclear whether Trump-endorsed candidates can win in general elections, in which they will face opposition not only from members of their own party but also from a broad swath of Democrats and independent voters.

What is clear is that this midterm election cycle has revealed the potency of conspiracy theories that prop up narratives of victimhood and messages of hate across the complex American landscape of white nationalism.
Campaigning on conspiracy theories

In my book, “Homegrown Hate: Why White Nationalists and Militant Islamists Are Waging War on the United States,” I detail how the white nationalist narrative of victimhood and particular grievances have gained traction to become ingrained in the present-day Republican Party.

I also examine four key strands of white nationalism that overlap in various configurations: religions, racism, conspiracy theories and anti-government views.

Conspiracy theories allow white nationalists to depict a world in which Black and brown people are endangering the livelihoods, social norms and morals of white people.

In general, conspiracy theories are based on the belief that individual circumstances are the result of powerful enemies actively agitating against the interests of a believing individual or group.

Based on the interviews I conducted while researching my book, these particular conspiracy theories are convenient because they justify the shared white nationalist goal of establishing institutions and territory of white people, for white people and by white people. While conspiracy theories are not new, and certainly not new to politics, they spread with increasing frequency and speed because of social media.

The “great replacement theory” is one such baseless belief that is playing a role in the anti-immigration rhetoric that is central to the 2022 strategies of many Republican candidates who are running for seats at all levels of government.

That theory erroneously warns believers of the threat that immigrants and people of color pose to white identity and institutions.

For months on the 2022 campaign trail, Republican Blake Masters, a venture capitalist who is running for a U.S. Senate seat in Arizona, has portrayed immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border as part of an elaborate plot by Democrats to dilute the political power of voters born in the United States.

“What the left really wants to do is change the demographics of this country,” Masters said in a video posted to Twitter last fall.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is another Republican leader who decries what he calls “the invasion of the southern border.”
The lie of the ‘Big Lie’

Aside from the inflammatory anti-immigration rhetoric, the conspiracy theory currently having the biggest impact on local, state and federal political campaigns across the country is Trump’s “Big Lie” that he won the 2020 election.

Donald Trump greets Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano on Sept. 3, 2022. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Of the 159 endorsements Trump has made for proponents of the Big Lie, 127 of them have won their primaries in 2022.

In addition, Republican candidates who align themselves with the Big Lie are also emerging victorious in races for state- and county-level offices whose responsibilities include direct oversight of elections.
The continuation of QAnon

On his social media site Truth Social, the former president quotes and spreads conspiracy theories from the quasi-religious QAnon. A major tenet of QAnon is the belief that the Democrats and people regarded as their liberal allies are a nefarious cabal of sexual predators and pedophiles.

Trump is not the only Republican politician who welcomes and spreads such disinformation.

Two of the most prominent politicians who have been linked to supporting QAnon are U.S. Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, both of whom have been resoundingly endorsed by Trump.
Democracies under threat

The blatant use of conspiracy theories for political gain reflects the open embrace of white nationalism in not only the United States but also throughout Sweden, France, Italy and other parts of the world.

In my view, the conspiracy theories that drive the 2022 midterm campaigns reflect the global threat of hate around the world.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. 

It was written by: Sara Kamali, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Read more:

Former Oath Keeper reveals racist, antisemitic beliefs of white nationalist group – and their plans to start a civil war

Trump’s time is up, but his Twitter legacy lives on in the global spread of QAnon conspiracy theories

A growing mistrust in democracy is causing extremism and strongman politics to flourish

How Texas became the new "homebase" for white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups

Areeba Shah

SALON
Sat, September 23, 2023 

Greg Abbott Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Texas has seen a sudden surge in extremist activity within the past three years, with white supremacist and anti-LGBTQ+ groups making the Lone Star state its base of operations.

According to a new report by the Anti-Defamation League, there has been an 89% increase in antisemitic incidents in Texas from January 2021 to May of this year. Along with six identified terrorist plots and 28 occurrences of extremist events like training sessions and rallies, Texas also saw an increase in the frequency of propaganda distribution.

"Texas has a long history of white nationalist activity and for many years has had a very active presence of white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups in the state, but the report's findings really do paint a very troubling picture of the current situation," Stephen Piggott, who studies right-wing extremism as a program analyst with the Western States Center, a civil rights group, told Salon.

"Texas is the homebase for a number of really active white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups, such as the Patriot Front and the Aryan Freedom Network."

This is one of the main factors driving extremism in the state. Patriot Front has contributed to Texas experiencing the highest number of white supremacist propaganda distributions in the United States in 2022, the report found.

The group has a "nationwide footprint," with members all around the country and their messaging contributing to 80% of nationwide propaganda in 2022 – a trend replicated every year since 2019, according to the report.

Patriot Front has also held rallies in major cities across the country, including Washington, D.C., Boston, Philadelphia and Indianapolis, where the events are frequently the largest public white supremacist gatherings.

Texas' close proximity to Mexico also makes it a hotbed for anti-immigrant activity, Piggot added, pointing to a growing number of nationalist and neo-Nazi groups focusing on immigration issues.

"They'll have rallies where a lot of the rhetoric is focused on demonizing immigrants and using dehumanizing rhetoric about immigrants," he said. "They're focused on the issue of immigration because Texas is a border state, but also an avenue for getting more recruits."

The political context further amplifies this phenomenon, Peter Simi, a sociology professor at Chapman University and an expert on white supremacists in the U.S., told Salon.

"When you look at the political context of what's happening in Texas as far as [the movement of] anti-CRT, anti-reproductive rights, anti-gay… that is extremely conducive and consistent with groups like the Patriot Front, so they kind of thrive," Simi said.

Last year, 31 members of Patriot Front were arrested near Idaho after police stopped a U-Haul truck near a "Pride in the Park" event and found members dressed uniformly and equipped with riot shields. Every present Patriot Front member was charged with criminal conspiracy to riot.

But this hasn't deterred the group from putting on public demonstrations and in many cases, even documenting them. In July, close to 100 masked group members recognized Independence Day by holding a flash demonstration in Austin while carrying riot shields, a banner reading "Reclaim America" and upside-down American flags.

"Whenever they have a gathering or any type of kind of public demonstration, they have folks filming and they put out really kind of flashy videos on social media, especially on places like Telegram and it's all designed to make it look cool and edgy," Piggot said.

Extremist groups often use online platforms to recruit and spread their ideology. Over the past year, ADL found that online hate and harassment rose sharply for adults and teens ages 13-17.

Among adults, 52% reported being harassed online in their lifetime, the highest number we have seen in four years, up from 40% in 2022, ADL spokesperson Jake Kurz said.

"Many online platforms either recommend more extreme and hateful content or make it easier to find once searched," Kurz said pointing to the report's findings. "For some, this could lead to a dark spiral into hate and extremism."

Patriot Front has emerged as one of the most aggressive groups in terms of distributing propaganda, Simi pointed out. They often even post pictures of the propaganda they've distributed online and circulate those images more broadly.

"In a nutshell, they're trying to really be aggressive in establishing a physical presence through [distributing] flyers as well as through actual demonstrations," Simi said. "They've also been known to do these flash mob style demonstrations and sometimes more coordinated demonstrations where they've shown up in places, like our nation's capital."

As a part of their recruitment strategies, white supremacist groups have consistently targeted the LGBTQ+ community, disrupting drag shows, targeting pride events and even going after businesses that support LGBTQ+ events. They have used slurs like "groomers" when talking about the LGBTQ+ community to draw more individuals to their movement.

"The anti-LGBTQ+ animus is probably the single greatest driver of white nationalist and anti-democracy activity that we're seeing across the country right now," Piggot said.

ADL tracked 22 anti-LGBTQ+ incidents in 2022 across Texas. While some actions involved extremists, others engaged more mainstream anti-LGBTQ+ entities, offering extremists opportunities to expose new audiences to different forms of hate.

"Hate and extremism seem to be a growing issue across the United States," Kurz said. "The number of antisemitic incidents across the country are the highest we have ever measured. Instances of white supremacist propaganda are high and we are seeing an alarming amount of violence motivated by hate and misinformation."

Kurz added that people should look at the Texas report and recognize that while some of the types of extremism are different, extremism is a problem in every community in the country.

The communities that are being targeted in Texas mirror those targeted nationwide, said Rachel Carroll Rivas, deputy director for research, reporting and analysis at the SPLC.

"Some of the real intense false conspiracies that circulate around QAnon are resulting in an increase in the sovereign citizen movement – a conspiratorial movement that is not followed and and even recognized a lot in the U.S.," Carroll Rivas said.

Other trends in Texas that are indicative of broader extremism patterns in the country include the targeting of school curriculums, she added.

The reason why these groups feel comfortable operating in Texas is because of the role that elected officials in the state are playing in "echoing white nationalist talking points," Piggot said.

He pointed to Texas Governor Greg Abbott's extreme anti-immigrant actions, putting up barbed wire across the Rio Grande and a chain of buoys with circular saws.

"Governor Abbott is essentially doing the work for white nationalists by echoing and then amplifying their dehumanizing rhetoric," Piggot said. "Just this week, he declared an invasion [at the border]. That's a phrase that white nationalists have used to describe what's happening on the U.S. [and] Mexico border for decades."

In both Texas and Florida, neo-Nazis and white nationalists are "feeling energized" and have increased their activities due to seeing this type of messaging from Abbot and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, he added.

"We need elected officials to be closing the political space for these groups and denouncing them instead of amplifying their messages for them," Piggot said.

‘Strange Fruit on Display In Houston’: Activists Remove Bizarre, Racist Halloween Decorations Depicting Black Bodies Hanging from Trees In Black Neighborhood

Yasmeen Freightman
Sat, September 23, 2023 

Public outcry brought Houston-area activists to one predominantly Black neighborhood to remove a very bizarre and offensive set of Halloween decorations that resembled Black bodies hanging upside down from trees.

The Houston Chronicle reported that the decorations were hung from a tree in front of a home in the Third Ward community. Community members called for the removal of the decorations, stating their imagery mimics public lynchings.

Community activists removed a bizarre and “racist” set of Halloween decorations that one Houston-area homeowner put up outside his home on trees on city property. (Photo: Instagram/candicematthewsdr)

A neighbor told the Chronicle they were put up last week by one homeowner. Many neighbors know the homeowner puts up Halloween decorations every year, but they called this year’s display “immeasurably insensitive and racist.” Community activists and city officials were notified the Saturday that followed.

Related: ‘Makes Me Sick’: Nebraska School District Condemns Racist Homecoming Proposal That References Cotton-Picking

Houston City Council member Carolyn Evans-Shabazz visited the home to speak with the homeowner and tell him the display was hanging from trees that were on city property. He told her they were merely “Halloween decorations.”

“I told him they were offensive. He did not care,” Evans-Shabazz said. “I told him he’s in a predominantly African-American neighborhood, and when people are offended, sometimes things happen. But he didn’t seem to care. He was very abrasive.”

Community activist Quanell X also tried to speak with the homeowner but was unsuccessful in his attempts. He went to the home accompanied by another popular Houston activist, Candice Matthews. Both characterized the display as “racist.”

Before the decorations were cut down, Quanell X brought a lawyer to confirm that the decorations were on city property. The Houston Police Department also confirmed they were hung from trees on city property.

Watch video of the decorations here.

“Every Houstonian, Texan and American should be outraged by the ‘strange fruit’ displayed in Houston,” Houston NAACP president James Dixon said.

The NAACP Houston Branch also released a statement denouncing the display.

“It is our position that leading citizens in our city should join us in condemning this behavior whenever it arises, emphasizing that this doesn’t reflect the spirit of Houston’s respect for all people of every race,” the statement read.

“I don’t know what his intentions were, but they were cut down, so to speak,” Shabazz told the Chronicle. “I assume that if he puts them back up, they’re going to get cut back down

HE RAN FOR PENN GOVERNOR

Republican Doug Mastriano told supporters he didn't get any money from Ohio derailment train operator Norfolk Southern

Records show he took $1,000

Charles R. Davis
Tue, February 21, 2023 

Pennsylvania Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano

Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano is holding a hearing Thursday on the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment.

Mastriano, a Republican, recently denied receiving any money from train operator Norfolk Southern.

But campaign records show he accepted $1,000 from the company's political action committee.

On social media, state Sen. Doug Mastriano — a Pennsylvania Republican who last year ran for governor with the backing of former President Donald Trump — has gone after "radical environmentalists" and Democrats over this month's train derailment just across state lines in East Palestine, Ohio, suggesting both have neglected the crisis.

In one meme he shared Monday with his nearly 170,000 followers on Twitter, a parent, labeled "US government," is depicted in a pool lifting up one child dubbed "Ukraine" while another, "Ohio," struggles to stay afloat. Another comment he shared attacked President Joe Biden and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who defeated Mastriano in the 2022 election. "Biden's in Ukraine and Shapiro's MIA," the user wrote, praising Mastriano for visiting East Palestine over the weekend.

As chairman of the state Senate committee charged with overseeing Pennsylvania's emergency preparedness, Mastriano is hosting a hearing on Thursday where he will seek testimony from state officials as well as representatives from Norfolk Southern, the company whose rail cars crashed and contaminated local waterways with toxic chemicals, killing thousands of fish and sparking concerns for the long-term health of nearby residents.

Mastriano has positioned himself as a truth-teller who bucks the establishment in both parties. But in a Facebook live stream last week in which he addressed the derailment, the senator misrepresented his own financial connection to the disaster.

When the lawmaker — who campaigned for governor on a platform of deregulation and expanded oil and gas development — told viewers "we can probably use our imagination" to explain the alleged neglect of East Palestine, one viewer, Paulette, offered up this response: "Norfolk rail donates to politicians" ("Donating to Democrats I'm sure!" another viewer, Karen, added in the comments).

"Yeah, Paulette, I heard on one of the news stations last night that that rail network is heavy into donating to politicians," Mastriano replied during the February 16 stream. While Mastriano said he couldn't confirm that was the case, "I know my own finances. I didn't get any money from that train network."

That's not true, according to campaign finance records. Since 2019, Mastriano has in fact received $1,000 from Norfolk Southern's political action committee, the Good Government Fund, per filings with the Pennsylvania Secretary of State. The last contribution, amounting to $500, came in 2020 when he was running for reelection to the state Senate.

Mastriano did not respond to a request for comment.

Norfolk Southern has also donated to Democrats. Indeed, in the 2022 election cycle, at the federal level, it gave a total of $725,000 to candidates from both parties, with roughly 51% of its contributions going to members of the Democratic Party. That was the first time since 2010 that a majority of its support did not go to the GOP, according to OpenSecrets, a nonprofit that tracks money in politics.

The company has been criticized for lobbying against stricter regulation of the rail industry, including a rule proposed during the Obama administration — and rescinded by the Trump administration — that would have required trains carrying hazardous chemicals to be outfitted with more advanced brake technology, The Washington Post reported.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, assured East Palestine residents that their drinking water is safe. Earlier in the day he and EPA Administrator Michael Regan toured the area and drank tap water from residents' homes.

Joining them was Pennsylvania's Shapiro, a Democrat, who last week ordered his own state's environmental regulators to conduct independent monitoring of water supplies. He lauded the EPA for ordering Norfolk Southern to cover the cost of cleaning up the accident.

"It was my view that Norfolk Southern wasn't going to do this out of the goodness in their heart," he said, CBS affiliate KDKA reported, adding: "There is no goodness in their heart."

Business Insider

AMERIKA

If you care about your country and your rights, don't vote for any Republicans in 2022

Jill Lawrence, USA TODAY
Tue, January 24, 2023 

Now that primary season is over there is a simple test for voters, especially Republicans and independents: If you care about the future of America, democracy and your own rights, don’t vote for Republicans. Any of them. Even the officeholders who have stood up to Donald Trump and the newcomers who pitch themselves as reality-based and results-oriented.

I feel terrible thinking this, much less writing it. I’ve covered many Republicans whom I admired. I spent months reporting on political negotiations and how deals get made in Congress. I believe policy debates and compromises are healthy, and the Democratic-led Congress has produced solid bipartisan results this year in gun safety, infrastructure, industrial policy and other areas.

Even so, the Republican Party is on a dark path and should not hold power anywhere until it comes back into the light. That’s especially true on Capitol Hill.

Congressional math is unforgiving. If there is just one more Republican than Democrat in the House or Senate, a power-obsessed party in thrall to election deniers and conspiracists will control committees, agendas, investigations and leadership positions.

We sued the FEC: Hold Trump accountable for raising money

The Trump-MAGA threat is real

Republican voters are key to the outcome. About 8% of them voted for Democrats in 2018, TargetSmart CEO Tom Bonier, a Democratic data and polling expert, told me in an email. If that rises to 15% this year, he added, “the GOP has no chance of taking back either the Senate or the House.”

That’s not an unrealistic goal given the percentage of Republicans who voted for abortion rights last month in Kansas (roughly 30%, Bonier said Wednesday at a New Democrat Network webinar) and the chunk of GOP voters alarmed by Trump and his "Make America Great Again" loyalists. A new poll found a quarter of Republicans agree that Trump's MAGA movement threatens democracy.

President Joe Biden accurately summarized that threat in a recent speech: “MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution. They do not believe in the rule of law. They do not recognize the will of the people. They refuse to accept the results of a free election. And they’re working right now, as I speak, in state after state to give power to decide elections in America to partisans and cronies, empowering election deniers to undermine democracy itself.”

As national security expert Tom Nichols wrote afterward in The Atlantic, “We should be deeply troubled that Joe Biden had to give this speech at all.” And he had to. Because even now, after the Trump mob’s insurrection attempt on Jan. 6, 2021, two impeachments, years of election lies, escalating legal problems and the FBI recovery of top secret government documents from Mar-a-Lago, Trump is not a spent force.

Former President Donald Trump and ally Doug Mastriano, the GOP nominee for Pennsylvania governor, at a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., on Sept. 3, 2022.

Hours after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on their deadly quest to block Congress from finalizing Biden’s win, 147 Republican lawmakers went ahead and objected to certified election results from Arizona, Pennsylvania or both. Over 18 months later, the party is still with Trump. Polls show roughly 70% of Republicans don’t view Biden as the legitimate winner of the 2020 election, and most Republicans want Trump as their 2024 nominee.

In fact, Maggie Haberman reports in her upcoming book, “Confidence Man,” Trump never intended to leave the White House – though he lost to Biden by more than 7 million votes.

'I picked 15 weeks': Sen. Lindsey Graham mansplains his federal abortion ban

Believers of Trump’s Big Lie that he was the true winner have elevated so many delusional Republicans that 60% of voters will find election deniers on their 2022 ballots, according to FiveThirtyEight. Its analysis of GOP nominees for House, Senate, governor, secretary of state and attorney general found at least 200 of 552 say the 2020 election was illegitimate. If they win, they could influence and possibly even overturn elections in 40 states.

Some of these races are out of reach for Democrats. In U.S. House contests, FiveThirtyEight found that “118 election deniers and eight election doubters have at least a 95 percent chance of winning.”

At the same time, Real Clear Politics counts eight toss-up Senate races, 11 toss-ups for governor and 34 in the House. Concerned conservatives and moderates could make the difference in these contests – particularly if they vote Democratic no matter what kind of Republican is running.

This seems unfair to Republicans who have shown principled independence. By my count, 20 in the House made it to the fall ballot despite voting for an independent bipartisan commission to investigate the violent Capitol riot. Two of them, California's Rep. David Valadao and Washington state’s Rep. Dan Newhouse, also voted to impeach Trump for inciting the rioters.

The Future of the Republican Party: What to do now with 'hot mess' that is the GOP?
Alarmed GOP voters are the fail-safe

Valadao’s tight race could be one of the few that determine House control. Does he deserve to be reelected? Maybe. But could America survive a GOP-controlled House unscathed? Also maybe, and that’s not good enough.

The same argument holds for candidates like Senate nominee Joe O’Dea in Colorado, who says he'd be an "independent-minded" senator, and House nominee Allan Fung in Rhode Island, who says he’d work with Democrats to solve problems. That’s commendable, but voting for them could produce a Republican House or Senate.

I wouldn’t even bet on fact-based Republican governors. Some could face veto-proof legislatures dominated by MAGA fantasists. And some could fold. Look at New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu and retired Army Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc, who a month ago declared that “Trump won the election. … I'm not switchin' horses baby. This is it." Sununu called Bolduc a “conspiracy theorist-type” and “not a serious candidate” for the GOP Senate nomination. But right before Tuesday's primary, Sununu said he'd endorse Bolduc if he won.

The upshot: Bolduc won, he and Sununu shared a public hug at a post-primary GOP unity breakfast, and then – in a shocking plot twist – Bolduc went on Fox News and said he had concluded that “the election was not stolen.”

A MAGA-driven America is a grim prospect. Would future Republican candidates admit defeat if they lost, or would they make sure, through legislation and manipulation, that they'd win? Would they cement minority rule and further restrict fundamental rights like voting and abortion?

Biden has correctly distinguished between “mainstream Republicans” and Trump’s extreme “MAGA Republicans.” They are different, and mainstream GOP politicians holding the line deserve credit. Nevertheless, when it comes to who controls Congress and the levers of power in states across the country, all that counts right now is the “R” after their names.

Jill Lawrence is a columnist for USA TODAY and author of "The Art of the Political Deal: How Congress Beat the Odds and Broke Through Gridlock." Follow her on Twitter: @JillDLawrence

PENNSYLVANIA

Shapiro's big win is a high note amid antisemitism surge




Pennsylvania candidate for governor, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, attends a rally of UPMC and Starbucks workers fighting for their union, in Pittsburgh, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. Shapiro will be taking office as Pennsylvania's next governor in January 2023 after running a campaign in which he spoke early and often about his Jewish religious heritage. 

(AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)More

PETER SMITH
Sat, December 24, 2022


PITTSBURGH (AP) — Josh Shapiro will be taking office as Pennsylvania's next governor in January after running a campaign in which he spoke early and often about his Jewish religious heritage.

At a time of rising concern about overt expressions of antisemitism, some observers are seeing a bright spot in his decisive victory, particularly coming in a presidential battleground state in which he was competing with a starkly contrasting opponent who deployed Christian nationalist themes.

The state voted in 2016 for Donald Trump — the former president who was recently criticized even by his Jewish supporters for dining with guests with well-known antisemitic views. It’s also the state that saw the nation’s deadliest outburst of antisemitism in the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue attack in Pittsburgh, which claimed 11 lives.

Shapiro won by 14 percentage points and built a classic Democratic coalition that included progressives from multiple faith traditions as well as the non-religious. He received the endorsement of groups like the Black Clergy of Philadelphia & Vicinity. Shapiro outpolled his opponent, state Sen. Doug Mastriano, among Catholics, and he received an 80% share of votes of those with no religious affiliation, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of midterm voters.

And his candidacy was closely followed by the Jewish community, which recalled in particular his response as the state's top law enforcement officer to the Tree of Life attack.

Beth Kissileff, a Pittsburgh writer and member of New Light Congregation — one of three congregations that lost members while meeting at the Tree of Life building — said it was reassuring to see Shapiro win as a “candidate who is confident that his values as a Jew are ones that he can teach and express in the public sphere and be championed by a majority of voters.”

Shapiro had already twice won statewide elections as attorney general, but he knew he’d be getting a new level of voter scrutiny in 2022 as a top-of-the-ticket candidate. “I thought it was very important to let Pennsylvanians know who I am and what I’m all about,” said Shapiro, a member of a synagogue in the middle-of-the-road Conservative tradition of Judaism.

He used his first campaign ad to tell family stories and of his commitment to making “it home Friday night for Sabbath dinner,” complete with footage of him and his children at the table. “Family and faith ground me,” he said.

That commitment came into play during the campaign. One Friday evening, he skipped a state Democratic Party dinner in Philadelphia, headlined by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, with several thousand ticket-paying attendees.

In his stump speeches and his election-night victory speech, Shapiro regularly quoted an ancient rabbinic maxim: “No one is required to complete the task, but neither are we free to refrain from it.”

He contrasted his campaign's coalition-building work with Mastriano's campaign, which regularly deployed Christian nationalist themes and imagery. Shapiro depicted Mastriano as not representing those who “don’t pray like him,” and he highlighted Mastriano's support for an abortion ban.

“I don’t use my faith as a tool to oppress others or limit their freedoms, or impose my values on them,” Shapiro said in an interview. “I don’t consult with my faith to determine where I should be on a policy or on a case or a matter. It’s simply what motivates me to serve.”

Mastriano's campaign consulted with Gab, a social media site popular with white supremacists and antisemites, including the accused gunman in the Tree of Life attack.

“What we saw in this campaign is that the good people of Pennsylvania — Democrats, Republicans, independents — rejected extremism, and I believe they will continue to reject it,” Shapiro said.

The Anti-Defamation League reported more antisemitic incidents in 2021 than in any year since it began annual surveys more than four decades ago. And in 2022, high-profile episodes included anti-Jewish statements from the rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, and the suspension of NBA star Kyrie Irving after he posted a link on social media to an antisemitic film.

At the same time, Americans have a more positive view of Jews than of any other religious or non-religious group, according to a 2019 Pew Research Center study.

The Pennsylvania election “suggests at a time when antisemitism is growing in some circles, there are also plenty of Americans who respect individuals who are religiously observant,” said Jonathan Sarna, professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Other current governors across the U.S. have spoken forthrightly of their Jewish heritage. Colorado Gov. Jared Polismarried his husband in 2021 while they wore yarmulkes and stood beneath a chuppah, the traditional canopy used in Jewish weddings. Polis reacted viscerally in 2020 to criticism that likened COVID-19 restrictions to Nazism, saying he lost family members in the Holocaust and that pandemic measures were designed to save not destroy lives.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has spoken of being shaped by Jewish values of social justice and of his family’s 19th century immigrant roots, when they fled pogroms in Eastern Europe.

Shapiro will be the third Jewish governor of Pennsylvania — and the second who was born with the surname Shapiro.

The late Milton Shapp, who led the state for much of the 1970s, had changed his name out of concern for antisemitism, according to a National Governors Association biography. Shapp didn’t emphasize his heritage, but he was open about it. After his longshot bid for higher office in 1976 sputtered as soon as it began, he quipped that his memoirs should be titled, “I Never Became the First Jewish President.”

Gov. Ed Rendell, who served from 2003 to 2011, was also open about his Jewish heritage but spoke mainly of having a general Golden Rule philosophy of treating others as one would want to be treated.

While Jews have won public office for decades, even with the legacy of discrimination in the United States, many point to the political career of former Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman as a turning point. Lieberman was the first religiously observant Jew on a major presidential ticket when he ran as Democrat Al Gore's vice presidential running mate in 2000. His commitment to observing the Sabbath, including refraining from campaigning, won admirers.

“Once upon a time, having a Jew on your ticket would have cost you,” Sarna said. "In this case, the scholars concluded it actually aided him (Gore)," though not enough to win.

Mark Silk, professor of religion in public life at Trinity College in Connecticut, said that Shapiro, “in the current moment, given the purple character of Pennsylvania, may be considered to have done himself more good than harm” in forthrightly speaking of his religion.

“Any price that Shapiro might have paid for being out there publicly as a Jewish candidate hurt him less than it hurt Mastriano being out there as a Christian nationalist Trumpian," he said.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Trump, Kanye West, and Nick Fuentes pushing antisemitism to the forefront of the GOP could pull the Christian nationalist movement apart

Kelsey Vlamis

Sun, December 11, 2022 

Nick Fuentes; Kanye West; Marjorie Taylor Greene

• Kanye West and Nick Fuentes' recent antisemitic comments have sparked widespread outrage.

• But they also exposed a darker side of Christian nationalism that was always there, experts say.

• The shift could hinder the recent resurgence of Christian nationalism in mainstream politics.

Former President Donald Trump's meeting with Kanye West and Nick Fuentes helped shine a spotlight on antisemitism that some on the right have tried to ignore — and could hinder the growing mainstream influence of Christian nationalism.

"The Christian nationalism label was already generating a lot of debate amongst conservative Christians in the United States. Now you throw antisemitism into the mix, and I think that creates yet another set of divisions," Philip Gorski, a sociologist at Yale University and the co-author of "The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy," told Insider.

Trump met with Ye and Fuentes — a white supremacist and Christian nationalist known for sharing racist and antisemitic views — at Mar-a-Lago on November 22. The former president later denied knowing anything about Fuentes, but weeks before the meeting Ye had also received criticism for his own antisemitic comments, including saying he was going to go "death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE."

Ye's antisemitism continued, boosted by the notoriety of the meeting with Trump. On December 1, the rapper appeared with Fuentes on Alex Jones' Infowars show, during which he praised Adolf Hitler and downplayed the Holocaust.

Ye working with Fuentes and meeting with Trump — and the way he's previously been embraced by others on the right, from Fox News' Tucker Carlson to GOP members of the House Judiciary Committee — have forced some conservatives and Christian nationalists to reckon with a side of the movement they have preferred to pretend wasn't there.

Christian nationalism and white supremacy

Gorski said he and other scholars of Christian nationalism have been saying for a long time that the ideology was tangled up with white supremacism, but they received a lot of pushback for it. "People saying, 'It's not true. I don't know anybody who's like that. I don't know anybody who thinks that,'" Gorski explained.

The recent scandals with Ye and Fuentes have "just brought some of that deeper, uglier stuff up to the surface and into broad daylight, but it was there the whole time."

Christian nationalism can generally be distilled down to the belief that Christianity and the US are intrinsically linked and that the religion should have a privileged position in American society. Americans who support Christian nationalist ideas may not identify as Christian nationalists. They also might embrace some aspects of the ideology but not others, so there's a wide spectrum of Christians who could be considered part of the movement.

"White Christian nationalism is older than the United States itself and it goes back to really the 17th century," Gorski explained, adding that the concept "in many ways emerged as a way of justifying stealing Native lands and killing Indigenous people, and enslaving kidnapped Africans."

Today there are still many Christian nationalists who, when talking about good Americans, are thinking of people who look and think like them, he said: "That means, first and foremost, conservative white Christians."

Andrew Whitehead, a sociologist at IUPUI and co-author of "Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States," has found similar connections between Christian nationalism and antisemitism.

"In our book, we show that Americans who embrace Christian nationalism more strongly are more likely to agree that 'Jews hold values that are morally inferior to me,' 'Jews want to limit the personal freedoms of people like me,' and 'Jews endanger the physical safety of people like me,'" Whitehead told Insider.

Additional research has also found close connections between Christian nationalism, antisemitism, QAnon followers, and supporters of Trump. And a how-to guide to Christian nationalism published in September by Gab Founder Andrew Torba was rife with antisemitism.

The Christian right divided

Despite the connection, Gorski said Christian nationalists would likely have "pretty complicated reactions" to the Ye and Fuentes situation "because they have a pretty complicated relationship to Israel and Judaism and American Jews."

Gorski said there is much less blatant antisemitism among conservative Christians in the US than there was in the mid-20th century. He said it's hard to quantify, but he believes the average "garden variety Christian nationalists are probably not explicitly or consciously antisemitic," even though there's a "hardcore faction" that is.

The American right has also been closely linked to support of Israel in recent decades, in part due to what Gorski described as an expansion pack for Christian nationalism: Christian Zionism — which refers to a belief among some Christians that the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 was the fulfillment of a biblical prophecy.

A LifeWay poll conducted in 2017 found that 80 percent of evangelical Christians, a group that is more likely to embrace Christian nationalism, believed the creation of Israel was part of the fulfillment of a prophecy in the Bible that would lead to the return of Christ. The survey respondents were also overwhelmingly politically conservative.

Gorski noted there is also a sentiment among some conservative Christians that differentiates between Jewish people by location, describing the thinking as: "Jews' real homeland is Israel, so a good Jew is in Israel, so an American Jew is not a good Jew." Under this strange logic, a Christian Zionist could be considered a better Jew than a Jew, he explained, noting a comment made in October by the wife of Doug Mastriano, the failed Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate. When addressing accusations of antisemitism against her husband, Rebecca Mastriano said "we probably love Israel more than a lot of Jews do."

The divide among Christian nationalists when it comes to Jewish people was on display when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia publicly criticized Fuentes, even though she herself has been accused of antisemitism and even appeared at an event with him earlier this year.

Greene is one of the few prominent Republicans — and only member of Congress — to openly identify as a Christian nationalist. But following the Alex Jones appearance, she publicly denounced Fuentes and his "racist" and "antisemitic" ideology. She also called him "racist" and "immature" on her show and said it "makes no sense" for Ye to align with him.

Fuentes responded by attacking her character: "She wants to be the face of Christian nationalism. She's divorced, and she's actively an adulterer," he said, referencing rumors. "How are you going to be the face of Christian nationalism when you're a divorced woman girlboss?"

Saying the quiet part out loud could hurt the Christian nationalism movement

Greene's rejection of Fuentes was also notable, as it forced her to confront a side of Christian nationalism that she had previously refused to acknowledge.

In addition to self-identifying with the term, she's become a major proponent of its ideals. Greene has said the GOP should be the party of Christian nationalism and even sells merch adorned with the term. She has also tried to dismiss criticism of the movement as coming from the "godless left" who hate both the US and God, and has ignored those who have pointed out the documented connections between Christian nationalism and white supremacy.

But Fuentes and Ye, empowered by a high-profile meeting with the former president, have made those connections much harder to ignore — and could help deter conservative Christians who may otherwise have been intrigued by the movement.

While Christian nationalism as a concept is still on the historical decline, its recent resurgence and influence in mainstream politics could be threatened if more far-right figures continue to shine a light on its ugliest parts.