Politics

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A recount in Texas affirmed Democrat U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar as the winner Tuesday of his primary race against progressive challenger Jessica Cisneros, who had trailed by fewer than 200 votes following a runoff in May.

Cuellar, a nine-term congressman, defeated Cisneros by 289 votes, according to results of the recount announced by by the Texas Democratic Party.

The Associated Press had not previously declared a winner in the race because it had been too close to call.

It is the second time that Cisneros, a 29-year-old immigration attorney who once interned for Cuellar, has lost a challenge to her former boss, whose moderate record along Texas’ heavily Hispanic southern border has aligned him at times with Republicans on issues including abortion and guns.

This time Cisneros got even closer than in 2020, when she lost by 4 percentage points behind national support from the party’s progressive leaders, including Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. They endorsed her again in the rematch along with abortion-rights groups that swooped into the race as the U.S. Supreme Court signaled it might overturn Roe v. Wade.

Cuellar is one of the last anti-abortion Democrats in Congress and has also bucked party for years over his support of gun rights and tougher stance on immigration. But he still kept the support of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic leadership.

Cuellar will face Republican Cassy Garcia in November in a district that remains favorable to Democrats, But the GOP has growing confidence in South Texas, a longtime Democratic stronghold, after Republican Mayra Flores flipped an open congressional seat in a special election Tuesday.

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By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday will focus on then-President Donald Trump’s efforts to pressure state officials as part of his broader effort to remain in office despite losing 2020’s election, committee aides said.

The committee hearing is the fourth of at least six expected this month as the nine-member House of Representatives select committee discloses results of its nearly yearlong investigation into the attack on the Capitol by thousands of Trump supporters.

Witnesses appearing in person will include Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, both Republicans like Trump. Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer at the Georgia secretary of state’s office, another Republican, and Wandrea ArShaye “Shaye” Moss, a former Georgia election worker who faced threats after being targeted by name by Trump associates, will also appear.

Trump held a raucous rally on Jan. 6, urging his supporters to march on the Capitol. He had seized on that date – when Vice President Mike Pence was to meet with lawmakers there to formally certify the election – as a last-ditch chance to hold onto the White House despite his loss at the polls.

The panel of seven Democrats and two Republicans has used the hearings to build a case that Trump’s efforts to overturn his defeat amounted to illegal conduct, far beyond normal politics.

Democrat Joe Biden in November 2020 defeated Trump in both Georgia and Arizona, two states that recently had backed Republicans in presidential elections. Trump and his associates put pressure on officials from those states to overturn the election results, partly via an effort to submit alternate slates of electors backing Trump.

‘FIND’ ENOUGH VOTES

Trump called Raffensperger on Jan. 2, 2021, telling Georgia’s top election official to “find” enough votes for him to win Georgia’s electoral votes, and Raffensperger remained a frequent target of Trump’s criticism. The secretary of state last month held off a Trump-backed challenger to win the Republican Party’s primary as he ran for reelection.

Raffensperger will face a Democratic opponent in the general election on Nov. 8.

“President Trump and his allies drove a pressure campaign based on lies, and these lies led to threats that put state and local officials and their families at risk,” a committee aide told reporters on a conference call on Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity to preview the hearing.

Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, while reiterating false accusations that he lost the election only because of widespread fraud that benefited Biden. Trump and his supporters – including many Republican members of Congress – dismiss the Jan. 6 panel as a political witch hunt, but its backers say it is a necessary probe into a violent threat against democracy.

Different members of the select committee have led questioning in each of the hearings to date. Democratic Representative Adam Schiff will take that role on Tuesday.

Schiff said on CNN’s “State of the Union” show on Sunday that the House panel would present evidence Trump was involved in the failed bid to submit slates of fake electors.

Evidence against Trump could potentially be crucial in an ongoing criminal investigation by the Department of Justice into the alleged fake elector plot.

The committee has scheduled a second hearing this week. That session, on Thursday, will focus on Trump’s efforts to assemble a team at the Justice Department to promote his false voter fraud claims, the committee aide said.

It had been scheduled for June 15 but was postponed. The committee did not provide a reason for the change.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

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(Corrects to show that treasurer position is an appointment, not a nomination)

By David Lawder

ROSEBUD, South Dakota (Reuters) -U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday will announce the appointment of Mohegan Indian Tribe Lifetime Chief Marilynn Malerba as U.S. Treasurer, marking the first time a Native American’s signature will appear on U.S. currency, the Treasury said.

Yellen, during a visit to the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, also will announce the creation of a new Treasury Office of Tribal and Native Affairs, which will report to the treasurer.

Malerba’s appointment by President Joe Biden also will allow Yellen’s signature to be added to the U.S. currency, as this was prohibited without a U.S. treasurer in place. Dollar notes have been printed since Yellen took office last year with former Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin’s signature on them.

The treasurer position has been vacant since January 2020, when Jovita Carranza left to become Small Business Administrator in the Trump administration. Malerba’s appointment needs no confirmation by the U.S. Senate.

“With this announcement, we are making an even deeper commitment to Indian Country,” Yellen said in prepared remarks to be delivered at the Rosebud Sioux reservation. “Chief Malerba will expand our unique relationship with Tribal nations, continuing our joint efforts to support the development of Tribal economies and economic opportunities for Tribal citizens.”

Malerba, who had a lengthy career as a registered nurse, has been chief of the Connecticut-based Mohegan tribe since 2010 and previously chaired its tribal council and served as its executive director of Health and Human Services, according to the Mohegan website https://www.mohegan.nsn.us/explore/heritage/our-ceremonial-leaders/chief.

The Treasury said Malerba will join Yellen at the Rosebud Sioux reservation on Tuesday, where Yellen will discuss the impact of some $20 billion in state and local fiscal recovery funds on tribal governments.

(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Bradley Perrett)

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By David Lawder and Heather Timmons

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden’s pointed criticism of oil and gas companies for earning massive profits as families suffer from high gasoline prices challenges a pillar of American capitalism: that U.S. companies should make as much profit as they legally can, and direct that windfall back to investors.

Biden told Shell Plc, Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp and other refining giants last week they have another responsibility: to do everything they can to bring down high gasoline prices that are squeezing American consumers and driving up inflation.

“We see it as a patriotic duty,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused gas price hikes, she said.

“We know where to put the blame, on the war. But oil companies, oil refiners they have responsibilities too. What they have been doing is taking advantage of the war.”  

Particularly galling to the White House is the jump in industry stock buybacks, returning to investors profits that the administration wants invested in more refining capacity to bring gasoline prices down.

Biden’s criticism is being soundly rebuffed by industry executives and trade groups as having no place in an economic discussion.

“The injection of ‘patriotism’ into this is an attempt to put shame on folks,” said Neil Bradley, chief policy officer at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the pro-business lobby group. “These are market forces and market functions.”

Instead, Bradley and other industry officials say the administration should remove import tariffs and cut regulations to allow more domestic fossil fuel production and refining, which would signal to energy markets that supplies will increase.

But the idea that U.S. chief executives should serve other stakeholders besides investors, and take direction from other masters besides market forces isn’t new for Biden, the U.S. presidency, or for corporate America.

His recent push is part of a slow-boil rethink of the role that companies, chief executives and the very wealthy should play in the U.S., what workers and average citizens deserve and whom governments should champion and protect.

Biden himself campaigned on a promise to fix American inequality, raise wages and force companies to pay their “fair share” in taxes, part of a broader attempt to reshape the U.S. economy.

Democrats’ roughly 100-member Congressional Progressive Caucus has pushed bills expanding workers’ and consumers’ rights, playing a growing role in Washington lawmaking.

And these companies have made promises too. In the summer of 2019, CEOs of more than 180 big U.S. companies, including Exxon and Chevron, pledged https://www.businessroundtable.org/business-roundtable-redefines-the-purpose-of-a-corporation-to-promote-an-economy-that-serves-all-americans they would not only work for shareholders, but employees, customers, suppliers and their communities to “build an economy that serves all Americans.”

Inflation hits poorer Americans particularly hard because they spend a greater percentage of their income on food and fuel. Asked last week about the pledge in the context of Biden’s remarks, the Business Roundtable group that organized it said in an email: “BRT CEOs, including our energy members, are attempting to do just that while navigating a global energy crisis, high costs for crude oil and other inputs, and an adverse regulatory and investment environment.”

Biden’s attempt to shame these companies into taking less profit has historical precedent.

President John F. Kennedy attempted to curb steel prices https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-press-conferences/news-conference-30 60 years ago, criticizing “a tiny handful of steel executives whose pursuit of private power and profit exceeds their sense of public responsibility,” and accusing them or showing “utter contempt for the interests of 185 million Americans.”

Kennedy’s diatribe in April 1962 came in response to steel companies announcing a $6-a-ton price increase, shortly after agreeing to a new contract — brokered by Kennedy’s administration — with the United Steelworkers union. A day after Kennedy’s remarks, the companies rescinded the price hike.

Unlike today, the exchange came at a time when steel profits were declining, imports were increasing and shares were falling. Announcing disappointing earnings a month later, U.S. Steel Corp CEO Roger Blough reportedly told shareholders:

“This concept is incomprehensible to me – the belief that government can ever serve the national interest in peacetime by seeking to control prices in competitive American business, directly or indirectly, through force of law or otherwise.”

Jawboning companies “to reduce inflation has never been very effective,” said Martin Bailly, a senior fellow in economic studies at the centrist Brookings Institution think tank.

“Biden’s frustration is understandable because there is no tool to reduce inflation except to put the whole economy into a downturn,” said Bailly, an expert on regulation and productivity.

“I think the right approach is to tough this situation out. Tell Americans that the inflation is the result of disruptions from COVID-19 and the huge price shock from the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Support the Federal Reserve and say that things will be bad for some time, but we will get through this and restore growth and price stability as soon as possible.”

(Reporting by David Lawder, Jarrett Renshaw abd Heather Timmons; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Facebook on Monday removed a campaign video by Missouri U.S. Senate candidate Eric Greitens, while Twitter blocked it from being shared, because the ad showed the Republican brandishing a shotgun and declaring that he was hunting RINOs, or Republicans in Name Only.

In the video, Greitens identifies himself as a Navy SEAL and says he’s going RINO hunting. “The RINO feeds on corruption and is marked by the stripes of cowardice,” he whispers outside a home on a tree-lined street before a tactical unit breaks through a door and throws what appear to be flash-bang grenades inside.

Greitens, a former Missouri governor who resigned in disgrace in 2018, enters an empty living room through the smoke and says, “Join the MAGA crew. Get a RINO hunting permit. There’s no bagging limit, no tagging limit and it doesn’t expire until we save our country.”

The video comes at a time of renewed focus on gun violence and violence in politics following fatal mass shootings and threats to government officials. Two weeks ago, a man carrying a gun, a knife and zip ties was arrested near Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s house after threatening to kill the justice.

On Sunday, Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans serving on the Congressional committee investigating the origins of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, said he recently received a letter at his home threatening “to execute me, as well as my wife and 5-month-old child.”

“We’ve never seen or had anything like that. It was sent from the local area,” Kinzinger, of Illinois, told ABC News, adding that he’s not worried about his personal safety but concerned about his family. Kinzinger, who is not running for reelection, is a moderate Republican, a swath of the GOP often disparaged as RINOs by hardline conservatives and supporters of Donald Trump.

Facebook said in a statement Monday that the video was removed “for violating our policies prohibiting violence and incitement.” Twitter said Greitens’ post violated its rules about abusive behavior but said it was leaving it up because it was in the “public’s interest” for the tweet to be viewable. The company’s move prevented the post from being shared any further.

Greitens’ campaign did not address the action taken by the two social media companies.

“If anyone doesn’t get the metaphor, they are either lying or dumb,” campaign manager Dylan Johnson said in a brief emailed statement.

The ad was released at a make-or-break time for Greitens’ Republican primary campaign to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Roy Blunt, as a crowded field of contenders vie for former President Donald Trump’s endorsement. The primary is Aug. 2,

It’s the latest dramatic move made by Greitens as he looks to jolt lackluster fundraising and move past graphic allegations of domestic abuse made in March in a sworn affidavit filed by his ex-wife in March in the former couple’s child custody case.

It also follows a well-worn playbook that has helped other Republican candidates juice their standing: make a provocative statement or ad, wait for a backlash to develop, then cite the backlash while trying to raise money from grassroots donors online. In Greitens case, the actions taken by the social media giants could prove to be a further boon. Conservatives have railed against social media companies in recent years, arguing that they aggressively censor right wing voices. (Such actions are often taken because the statements violate the companies guidelines.)

Greitens stepped aside as Missouri’s governor in 2018 amid a scandal involving accusations of blackmail, bondage and sexual assault. Sheena Greitens has alleged that, at that time, Eric Greitens was physically abusive to her and one of their sons, while demonstrating such “unstable and coercive behavior” that steps were taken to limit his access to firearms, court documents state.

Greitens has vehemently denied the allegations. But they’ve continued to dog him on the campaign trail.

Helen Wade, Sheena Greitens’ lawyer, told The Kansas City Star that she would “absolutely” use the video in the couple’s ongoing court case.

“This is over the line,” Wade told the newspaper while indicating she would file court papers to make the video an exhibit in the case.

Other candidates in the Senate race also condemned the video.

Republican state Sen. Dave Schatz, called the video “completely irresponsible.”

“That’s why I’m running. It’s time to restore sanity and reject this nonsense. Missouri deserves better,” Schatz said in a tweet.

Democrat Lucas Kunce, meanwhile, tweeted that “Terrorists, child abusers, and criminals” like Greitens “shouldn’t even be able to get a weapon.”

“Help me beat this guy in November, and I’ll keep our families safe from criminals like him,” Kunce said.

Once a swing state, Missouri has become more reliably Republican in recent years. But the race is nonetheless receiving national attention because some in the GOP establishment are anxious that, with the latest abuse allegations, as well as his previous scandals, Greitens would be vulnerable against a Democrat.

And with the Senate evenly divided, the GOP can’t afford to lose what would otherwise be a safe seat.

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DENVER (AP) — A Nebraska man has pleaded guilty to making death threats against Colorado’s top elections official in a what officials say is the first such plea obtained by a federal task force devoted to protecting elections workers across the U.S. who have been subject to increasing threats since the 2020 presidential election.

Travis Ford, 42, pleaded guilty in Denver federal court to sending threats to Secretary of State Jena Griswold on social media. Griswold is a national advocate for elections security who has received thousands of threats over her insistence that the 2020 election was secure and that former President Donald Trump’s claims that it was stolen from him are false.

Thursday’s plea was announced by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Colorado and was first reported by The Denver Gazette. Ford, a resident of Lincoln, Nebraska, faces up to two years in prison when he is sentenced Oct. 6.

It’s the first guilty plea obtained by the U.S. Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force, which was launched last year to investigate threats of violence against elections workers, the office said. FBI agents in Colorado and Nebraska investigated the case.

“Threats of violence against election officials are dangerous for people’s safety and dangerous for our democracy, and we will use every resource at our disposal to disrupt and investigate those threats and hold perpetrators accountable,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

According to the announcement, Ford sent Griswold a series of threatening messages over Instagram in August. “Do you feel safe? You shouldn’t,” one read. Another read: “Your security detail is far too thin and incompetent to protect you.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security this month renewed a threat advisory warning of possible violence, particularly for elections officials, workers and other targets by individuals or small groups motivated by conspiracy theories and “false and misleading narratives.”

Griswold, a Democrat, told Colorado lawmakers earlier this year that she and other elections officials have received thousands of threats that have prompted many local clerks to quit or take security training so they feel safe in their public service work.

The Legislature passed bills to enhance security for Griswold and other statewide office-holders and to add protections for all elections workers. Gov. Jared Polis has signed them into law.

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MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The two Republican candidates in Alabama’s U.S. Senate primary runoff on Tuesday can each boast that at one point they had Donald Trump’s endorsement in the race.

Trump first backed U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks in the spring of 2021. That endorsement stood for nearly a year until Trump rescinded it as the conservative firebrand languished in the polls. The former president took his time in issuing a second endorsement, supporting Katie Britt in the race only after she emerged as the top vote-getter in the state’s May 24 primary.

In other races Tuesday, Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser is facing voters amid growing concerns about crime. Runoffs in Georgia will resolve close contests in several congressional races and a secretary of state nomination, while primaries in Virginia will set up competitive congressional contests for the fall. Arkansas is holding primary runoffs for several legislative races.

What to watch in Tuesday’s primaries:

ALABAMA

The Senate runoff will decide the GOP nominee for the seat being vacated by 88-year-old Republican Sen. Richard Shelby, who announced his retirement in February 2021 after serving six terms.

Two months later, Trump announced his endorsement of Brooks, rewarding the six-term congressman who had objected to the certification of the 2020 presidential election and spoke at the “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

But Trump soured on Brooks as the primary campaign progressed, growing unhappy with his showing in the race and some of his comments urging the party to move on from the former president’s fixation on his 2020 election defeat. He pulled his endorsement last March.

Britt, Shelby’s former chief of staff and a former leader of a state business group, won the most votes in last month’s primary, capturing nearly 45% of the ballots compared to Brooks’ 29%. Britt had needed to earn more than 50% of the vote to win outright and avoid a runoff.

Another top candidate, Mike Durant, best known as the helicopter pilot who was held captive in Somalia during the 1993 battle chronicled in the book and film “Black Hawk Down,” finished in third place and failed to advance to the runoff.

Brooks has been backed by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, both of whom campaigned with him. Britt comes into Tuesday’s runoff with a fundraising advantage and a shiny new endorsement from Trump, which came a couple of weeks after the primary.

The former president, who has a mixed record of success in backing winning candidates in this year’s midterm elections, waited to make an endorsement to help stave off the embarrassment of backing a losing candidate in a high-profile race.

The winner of the GOP race will face Democrat Will Boyd in November, though Democrats have found limited success in the deep-red state in the last 20 years.

GEORGIA

A Democratic contest for secretary of state headlines the Tuesday runoffs in Georgia, while Republicans will settle three congressional nominations.

State Rep. Bee Nguyen, backed by Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams, is trying to defeat former state Rep. Dee Dawkins-Haigler in the secretary of state’s race. The winner will face Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in the fall.

Raffensperger beat back a challenge in his May 24 primary from U.S. Rep. Jody Hice, who was endorsed by Trump. Trump made Raffensperger a top target for rebuffing his efforts to “find” enough votes to overturn Joe Biden’s win in the state’s 2020 presidential election.

In congressional runoffs, Vernon Jones, a Trump-backed candidate and former Democrat, is competing against trucking company owner Mike Collins for the Republican nomination for the 10th Congressional District seat east of Atlanta. Collins was endorsed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who also won his primary over a Trump-backed challenger.

In the 6th District in Atlanta’s northern suburbs, emergency room physician Rich McCormick is trying to hold off Trump-backed lawyer Jake Evans. That race has revolved around accusations by each candidate that the other is insufficiently conservative.

The Republican winners in the 6th and 10th are heavy favorites in the November election over their Democratic opponents.

Republicans also have high hopes of knocking off 30-year Democratic Rep. Sanford Bishop in southwest Georgia’s 2nd District. The GOP is choosing between former Army officer Jeremy Hunt and real estate developer Chris West.

VIRGINIA

In Virginia, voters will be picking Republican nominees to take on Democratic U.S. House incumbents in two of the most highly competitive districts in the country.

In the coastal 2nd District, which includes the state’s most populous city, Virginia Beach, four military veterans are competing for the GOP nomination. With a big fundraising lead and the backing of the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC dedicated to electing House Republicans, state Sen. Jen Kiggans is widely seen as the front-runner. The winner will face Democrat Elaine Luria, a retired Naval commander and member of the Jan. 6 committee, in the general election.

In central Virginia’s 7th District, six candidates are jockeying to take on Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA officer.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Bowser, the two-term mayor of Washington, D.C., is trying to fend off challenges from a pair of Council members as the district contends with rising crime rates and homelessness concerns.

Bowser has had a tumultuous second term that saw her repeatedly face off against Trump and walk a public tightrope between her own police department and a vocal coalition of activists led by Black Lives Matter. She is campaigning on the need for proven leadership and her history as one of the faces of Washington’s ongoing quest for statehood.

Her primary challengers are Robert White and Trayon White, who are not related to each other. Both accuse Bowser of mishandling public safety issues amid rising violent crime rates and favoring developers as spiraling costs of living drive Black families out of the city.

The Democratic primary essentially decides the mayoral race in deeply blue Washington, D.C.

Robert White has a history of successful insurgent campaigns, having unseated an entrenched incumbent for an at-large Council seat in 2016.

Trayon White openly invokes the spirit of late D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, who remains a controversial but beloved figure among many Washingtonians. White was criticized in 2018 for claiming the Rothschilds, a Jewish banking dynasty and frequent subject of antisemitic conspiracy, were controlling Washington’s weather conditions. He later said he didn’t realize his comment could be construed as antisemitic.

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Associated Press writers Jeff Amy in Atlanta, Sarah Rankin in Richmond, Va., Ashraf Khalil in Washington, and Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Ark., contributed to this report.

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Follow AP for full coverage of the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ap_politics.

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NEW YORK (AP) — By the numbers, the Jan. 6 committee hearings attracted 20 million live viewers on opening night, 11 million for the first daytime session and nearly 9 million for Thursday’s third installment.

Yet those traditional Nielsen company yardsticks don’t begin to measure the true reach of what is being said there.

Memorable moments from each hearing are sliced for quick consumption on countless news programs, comedy shows and online, to the point where some have been seen more times later than when they were live.

In many respects, it’s the first congressional hearing in memory that seems specifically designed with modern media needs in mind, said Jeff Jarvis, a City University of New York journalism professor and frequent blogger on the media.

“That has already worked,” he said.

While it’s impossible to know what — if anything — covered in the initial stages of the hearing will stick much beyond the week’s news, there are already breakout moments and characters.

GIULIANI AND ALCOHOL

Receiving wide circulation: snippets where President Donald Trump’s former political director, Bill Stepien, aide Jason Miller and committee member Liz Cheney say that lawyer Rudy Giuliani had too much to drink before advising Trump on election night 2020.

Hours after the allegation had been made, the clips were featured in the monologues of top-rated late-night comics Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel. The shows are typically seen by a combined audience of nearly 5 million people each night, with many more people watching online the next morning. Kimmel accompanied it with a film package of times when Giuliani acted oddly in defense of Trump.

The episode resonated in part because it was a connectable moment in an otherwise very serious story, said Robert Thompson, director of Syracuse University’s Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture.

“Having people who are major figures in a national political setting outed for being wasted is something that people can find immediately understandable,” Thompson said.

BARR’S REALITY

Former Attorney General William Barr’s recorded testimony that he found Trump “detached from reality” with some of his claims about election fraud was the lead in several news stories about Monday’s hearing. It was a vivid and disturbing image of a former president from the man who ran Trump’s Justice Department.

The ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts that night all featured the clip of Barr’s comment, and together the three programs typically reach more than 20 million viewers — or double the amount of people who saw the hearing live.

There’s no count of how many times it was repeated on cable news, or estimate of how many people saw it that way.

Two anecdotal examples illustrate the extent to which it was seen online. A clip of the moment posted by Reuters on Facebook was watched 928,000 times, and the clip posted on The New York Times’ Instagram account was seen 404,000 times.

DAUGHTER AND SON-IN-LAW

Filmed testimony from Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner has been particularly potent, in large part simply because they come from the family of a man who prizes loyalty.

A clip of Ivanka Trump saying she trusted Barr’s assessment of the fraud allegations amassed more than 1.6 million views in an Instagram post published by The Shade Room, a media outlet that focuses on celebrity entertainment, and 1 million when Bloomberg shared it on Twitter. Twitter posts of the video uploaded by MSNBC and the committee itself got more than 900,000 views together.

A video of her recollection of a phone call her father made to Vice President Mike Pence on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021 was shown on each of the three evening newscasts on Thursday, sometimes accompanied by the colorful descriptions of his language.

Kushner’s halting response when asked about what he had said to his father-in-law about Giuliani — as if he was weighing in real time what it meant to be under oath — became fodder for jokes.

NEW STAR

Previously little-known, former White House attorney Eric Herschmann has become a breakout star this past week for his filmed testimony concerning his conversations with John Eastman, architect of Trump’s failed maneuvering to hold onto power.

Editing his own colorful language, Herschmann recalls saying “are you out of your effing mind?” when Eastman talks the day after the Capitol riot about a potential appeal of Georgia election results. Like a stern parent, he tells Eastman that the only words he wants to hear from him are “orderly transition” and advises him to “get a great f-ing criminal defense lawyer. You’re going to need it.”

Recognizing the testimony’s potential impact, Cheney released it on Twitter the day before it was prominently featured in the hearing, giving it extra attention. That also served to highlight the committee’s finding that Eastman had unsuccessfully sought a presidential pardon.

Politico even did a story on the art hanging on the wall behind Herschmann during his testimony.

CHENEY’S PREDICTION

Cheney’s prosecutor-like outline of the committee’s case at the top of its only prime-time hearing drew wide attention, along with some advice that may live longer than her political career.

“Tonight, I say this to our Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone — but your dishonor will remain,” she said.

The Associated Press’ tweet with video of Cheney making that remark has been seen more than 1 million times.

Someday, depending on how history regards the events of Jan. 6, 2021, it may wind up the moment most recalled, like when it was revealed during the Watergate hearings that John Dean has warned Richard Nixon about a “cancer on the presidency,” Thompson said.

“I see that as the classic quote,” Thompson said.

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Associated Press correspondent Arijeta Lajka in New York contributed to this report.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Members of the House committee investigating the Capitol riot said Sunday they may subpoena former Vice President Mike Pence and are waiting to hear from Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, about her role in the illegal plot to overturn the 2020 election.

Lawmakers indicated they will release more evidence about Donald Trump’s alleged effort to defraud supporters by fundraising off false claims of a stolen presidential election. They also pledged to provide pertinent material to the Justice Department by the end of the month for its criminal investigation. The department complained in a letter last week that the committee was complicating its investigation by not sharing transcripts from its 1,000 interviews.

“We’re not taking anything off the table in terms of witnesses who have not yet testified,” said Rep. Adam Schiff, who described a Pence subpoena as “certainly a possibility.”

“We would still, I think, like to have several high-profile people come before our committee,” said Schiff, D-Calif.

For example, the committee has been able to document most of Trump’s end of his call to Pence on the morning of the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, when the then-president made his final plea for Pence to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s victory when Pence presided over the Electoral College count in Congress. Members have not yet documented directly what Pence said in response.

The committee chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., recently said the committee was still “engaging” with Pence’s lawyers, while also suggesting it may not be necessary for him to appear because of testimony from many of Pence’s closest aides.

Committee members also hope to learn more about Ginni Thomas’ own effort to keep Trump in office and the potential conflicts of interest posed on her husband as a result on Jan. 6 cases that come before the Supreme Court.

Republican state Rep. Rusty Bowers, the Arizona House speaker, is scheduled to testify at the committee’s hearing Tuesday focusing on state officials who were contacted by Trump and the White House as Trump tried to overturn the results. Bowers is likely to be asked about emails he received from Thomas urging him and other state officials to set aside Biden’s 2020 win and choose their own set of electors.

“We have questions for her and we may have questions for him as well,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif.

Thomas has publicly indicated that she “can’t wait” to appear before the committee after receiving their request by letter last week.

Along with emailing Arizona officials, Thomas, who attended a rally Trump held just before the Capitol riot, also had written to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in the weeks after the election encouraging him to work to overturn Biden’s victory. Emails recently obtained by the committee also show Thomas had email communications with John Eastman, the lawyer who played a key role on behalf of Trump in efforts to pressure Pence to overturn the election.

“I think the committee will be interested, in among other things, whether this was discussed with Justice Thomas, given that he was ruling on cases impacting whether we would get some of this information,” Schiff said.

This past January, Thomas was the lone member of the court who supported a bid by Trump to withhold documents from the Jan 6. committee.

Lofgren said the committee would release additional evidence it has gathered on the “big rip off,” in which the committee alleges Trump may have committed fraud by fundraising by making a false claim the election was stolen.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said that in the end, the public will have a clear picture of a “failure of the oath” by Trump.

“I think what we’re presenting before the American people certainly would rise to a level of criminal involvement by a president,” he said.

Kinzinger also said that he and his family have received threats because of his role on the committee. He spoke of his concern that “there’s violence in the future. … And until we get a grip on telling people the truth, we can’t expect any differently.”

Schiff appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Lofgren was on CBS’ “Face the Nation” and Kinzinger spoke on ABC’s “This Week.”

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For full coverage of the Jan. 6 hearings, go to https://www.apnews.com/capitol-siege

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By Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. House panel investigating the January 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol will present evidence this week that former President Donald Trump was involved in a failed bid to submit slates of fake electors to overturn the 2020 election, a key lawmaker said on Sunday.

“We will show evidence of the president’s involvement in this scheme,” Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff, a member of the House of Representatives Select Committee, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“We will also again show evidence about what his own lawyers came to think about this scheme, and we’ll show courageous state officials who stood up and said they wouldn’t go along with this plan to either call legislatures back into session or decertify the results for Joe Biden,” he said.

Schiff’s comments came as the Democratically-led committee prepares to hold its fourth public hearing on Tuesday on their investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack and Trump’s role in trying to block Congress from certifying Biden’s election victory.

Evidence against Trump could potentially be crucial in an ongoing criminal investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) into the alleged fake elector plot.

In an interview with CNN earlier this year, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco confirmed the department had received referrals about slates of alternative fake electors that were sent to the National Archives, and said prosecutors were reviewing them.

In March, the non-profit watchdog group American Oversight published copies https://www.americanoversight.org/american-oversight-obtains-seven-phony-certificates-of-pro-trump-electors of the phony electoral slates, which had been assembled by groups of Trump supporters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

Since then, the DOJ has convened a grand jury to subpoena witnesses and documents as part of the probe, multiple media outlets have reported.

Jamie Raskin, another Democratic member of the panel, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that new information and tips kept coming in.

“There are still people who are turning over information to the committee,” he said. “We know things this weekend that we didn’t know last weekend.”

Last week, the DOJ renewed a demand that the House Select Committee turn over transcripts of its interviews with witnesses, saying in a letter those transcripts could be relevant to ongoing criminal investigations and prosecutions.

The committee’s failure to turn them over “complicates the department’s ability to investigate and prosecute those who engaged in criminal conduct,” the letter said.

Asked about the letter on Sunday, Schiff said that usually the two separate branches of government don’t allow one another to “rifle through” each others’ files.

However, he added: “When the Justice Department asks for things specifically… We work with them, and we will work with them here.”

Trump, meanwhile, has continued to peddle false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. On Friday, he lashed out at former Vice President Mike Pence, saying he “did not have the courage to act” and reject the 2020 election results.

On Sunday, Adam Kinzinger, one of the two Republicans serving on the committee, said he received death threats aimed at him, his wife, and their baby.

“This threat that came in, it was mailed to my house,” he said on ABC’s “This week.”

“We got it a couple of days ago and it threatens to execute me as well as my wife and five-month old child. Never seen or heard anything like that,” he added.

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; additional reporting by Kanishka Singh; Editing by Heather Timmons and Daniel Wallis)

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