Insurrectionist's plans suggest future attacks

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Six months after the most dangerous attack on our democracy in living memory, we're still learning a lot about Jan. 6 (though not as much as we would if Republican leaders worked in good faith to investigate the attempt to overthrow our elections). The thread that underpins every new story and detail is clear: militant extremism and conspiracism have woven themselves deep into the fabric of our country, and the threat has grown in no small part due to a partisan insistence on ignoring the problem. Our solution cannot be to continue looking the other way. Instead, we have to be proactive at countering extremism and promoting principled leadership in America. —Mike Ongstad, Communications Director, Stand Up Republic

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** It's not over yet
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Fi Duong was among the hundreds of insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Afterwards, the Northern Virginia man formed his own militia group and built up a supply of explosives under the guise of a Bible study, where members discussed firearms and other training for a potential confrontation with the government. Duong appeared in court on Friday, and the disturbing details of his case were made public yesterday. ([link removed])
* — "At a certain point, you just gotta make a stand." An undercover officer with the D.C. police first encountered Duong at the Capitol after he scaled a wall and entered the building. Describing himself as an "operator," Duong explained that he wore all black to look like an anti-fascist activist. In video of the attack, he can be heard shouting, "We're coming for you, Nancy," referring to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. ([link removed])
*
* — "Keep your guns and be ready to use them." The undercover officer stayed in touch with Duong, who said he was part of a "cloak and dagger" group that will "build resistances...for what will inevitably come." He talked with the officer about freeing other rioters who were behind bars, testing out explosives, and working on a "manifesto," saying, "If I get into a gun fight with the feds and I don't make it, I want to be able to transfer as much wisdom to my son as possible." ([link removed])
*
* — Duong was released to home confinement pending trial, over the objections of prosecutors. The undercover agent "gave him every opportunity to step over the line, and at every point he chose not to," said Magistrate Judge G. Michael Harvey, explaining his decision. "Someone who showed so much concern for what the legal lines are should be given the opportunity—to show he can continue to stay within the lines." —The Washington Post ([link removed])

MORE: McCarthy nailing down GOP members for Capitol riot panel —CNN ([link removed])


** RNC hacked by Russia?
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The Republican National Committee is denying it was affected, but a Russian state-sponsored hacking group called "Cozy Bear" infiltrated the RNC's IT contractor, Synnex, last week, possibly exposing its information. Members of Cozy Bear, working with Russia's foreign intelligence service, are suspected to be behind the massive SolarWinds breach late last year, one of a flurry of recent cyberattacks on critical infrastructure and companies in the U.S. But political organizations remain a prime target. A Russian hacking group known as "Fancy Bear" worked with Russia's military intelligence agency in 2016 to hack the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, leading to the publication of thousands of private emails on WikiLeaks ahead of the election. — ([link removed]) The Verge ([link removed])

MORE: Pro-Trump social media site Gettr hacked —CNET ([link removed])


** Olsen: Polarizing news media harms democracy
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"Consumers of political news clearly respond to apocalyptic claims and sharp, abrasive personalities and conflict. The more people feel directly threatened or fearful, the more they want to read about what they fear and how to fight it. Feeding that fear is good for the political news world's bottom line, regardless which side one caters to. That type of intense frenzy, however, is extremely bad for democracy. ... People can't live freely together when they see their neighbors as tyrants." —Henry Olsen in ([link removed]) The Washington Post ([link removed])

Henry Olsen is a Washington Post columnist focusing on politics, populism, and American conservative thought, and a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

MORE: QAnon influencers received press credentials to Trump rally: report —The Hill ([link removed])


** Infrastructure bill earns more support
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The 58-member Problem Solvers Caucus, a bipartisan group of House lawmakers, publicly backed President Biden's $579 billion infrastructure deal yesterday. The endorsement gives the compromise bill fresh momentum as calls for a speedy stand-alone vote in the House grow. However, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said the House will not vote on the deal until the Senate passes a bill addressing the rest of Biden's $4 trillion agenda, including corporate and individual tax increases and spending on childcare, education, and paid family leave. Progressives argue that Pelosi's strategy gives the House leverage to force all 50 Democrats and independents in the Senate to vote for the legislation, but it would hold up infrastructure, as votes on the second measure are not expected until the fall. —Bloomberg ([link removed])

MORE: In hunt for infrastructure deal, every Dem has leverage —Associated Press ([link removed])
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** Fowler & Fowler: A potential solution to gerrymandering
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"Some election experts recommend multi-member districts, which counteract partisan sorting in a variety of ways. Increasing each district's size makes both packing and cracking harder, since each district is larger than even the most populous partisan cluster. Fewer districts mean fewer boundaries to manipulate. Larger districts offer more coalition possibilities to attract strong, well-funded candidates from both parties. Together, these changes encourage both incumbents and challengers to attend to a wider range of voters." —Christopher Fowler & Linda Fowler in ([link removed]) The Washington Post ([link removed])

Christopher Fowler is an associate professor of geography at Pennsylvania State University. Linda Fowler is a professor of government and the Frank J. Reagan Chair in Policy Studies, Emerita, at Dartmouth College.

MORE: Republicans weigh 'cracking' cities to doom Democrats —Politico ([link removed])


** Focus on the NYC Democratic primary
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Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams has won the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City. Adams, a former police captain, appealed to the political center during his campaign and promised to strike the right balance between fighting crime and ending racial injustice in policing. He will face Curtis Sliwa, the Republican founder of the Guardian Angels, in the general election this fall. ([link removed])
* — Why it matters. Adams won the city's first major ranked-choice election. Voting in the primary ended on June 22, but while early returns showed Adams in the lead, he did not earn an outright majority of votes. New Yorkers had to wait for tens of thousands of absentee ballots to be counted and then for rounds of ranked-choice tabulations to be completed. ([link removed])
*
* — Some bumps along the way. The new voting system scored high marks from voters, but it wasn't perfect. As votes were being tallied on June 29, elections officials bungled the count by inadvertently including 135,000 test ballots. Erroneous vote tallies were posted for several hours before officials discovered the error and took them down. ([link removed])
*
* — Legal action. While the error was quickly addressed and had no impact on the final outcome of the race, Adams and two of his primary opponents—former Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia and former City Hall legal advisor Maya Wiley—all filed lawsuits last week seeking the right to review the ranked-choice tally. —Associated Press ([link removed])

MORE: Why New York's election debacle is likely to fuel conspiracy theories —The New York Times ([link removed])


** Traub: American democracy is a global outlier
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"It is troubling enough that in the United States, as elsewhere in the world, faith in democracy is yielding to the wish for a strongman who will put things right or restore an imaginary golden age. What is distinctive about the United States is the way in which a localized, politicized, market-based political culture, abetted both by intense polarization and racism, has enabled anti-democratic forces to reduce the vote of the other side and thus win elections even when they constitute a minority." —James Traub in ([link removed]) Foreign Policy ([link removed])

James Traub is a columnist at
Foreign Policy and a nonresident fellow at New York University's Center on International Cooperation.

MORE: Greg Sargent: Meet the Republicans who want to stop the next attempt to steal an election —The Washington Post ([link removed])

Many Democrats are worried that Republicans will blast the investigation by the Jan. 6 Select Committee as partisan. Here's a clue: There is NOTHING you folks can do or say that will prevent the Republicans from whining about partisanship. That is all they have left when it comes to any topic. They can't handle the truth. Period. Their only game is to deny and lie. I am willing to bet that the facts will show their orange leader supported the attack that day, and will support more attacks as well. And I have no doubt some of the party members supported it, and will again, as well.

I may be wrong here, but I think either President Biden or Attorney General Garland could appoint a special prosecutor or special counsel to investigate Jan. 6. It baffles me why, six months later, we're still talking about what could or should be done. Too much talk, not enough action.

I would suggest that the Democrats not fret over which members of the insurrection party are placed on the committee. Play their game, call their bluff. Uncover the facts and the truth. It will be a circus (lest we forget the Benghazi hearings), so use it rather than whine about it. The Republicans will bring the whine, so you should bring the cheese. —Bill T., Arizona
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** The views expressed in "What's Your Take?" are submitted by readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff or the Stand Up Republic Foundation.
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