Beware of the Trump Dangers All Hidden In Plain Sight
One thing about trump is that everything he is doing to wreck the country is happening right before our eyes.
He’s endorsed all kinds of miscreants, low lifes and losers for various federal offices and if many of them can cash in on the coveted trump endorsement, look out, because they can be guaranteed to be 1000 percent behind trump, should he run for president in 2024, god forbid.
Some of the more tainted trumpian endorsements have included the likes of Rep. Madison Cathorn, R-N.C., who has claimed without evidence that Senators have engaged in sex orgies among other crazy things; Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., who was censured in November 2021 for posting on social media a version of an anime series with the faces of himself, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Biden superimposed on the show’s characters, depicting Gosar attacking them with swords.
Trump also has blessed the reelection of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who has stood up for the rioters at the Capitol; J.D. Vance, who won the GOP primary in Ohio last week and claimed that Biden is flooding the state with illegal drugs brought in by immigrants; and Hershel Walker, running for Senate in Georgia, who has a history of domestic violence and lying.
Here is a bit about some of the lesser known candidates who gained trump’s imprimatur.
* Trump’s pick for congress in West Virginia, Rep. Alex Mooney, last week defeated Rep. David McKinley in the GOP primary for the newly reconfigured 2nd Congressional District that combines both of the districts currently represented by Mooney and McKinley.
After the Jan. 6, 2020, attack on the capitol by trump supporters, Mooney objected to certifying Pennsylvania’s electoral votes cast for Joe Biden. Without proof, Mooney claimed that Pennsylvania violated election laws, ignored its constitution and that the “legislature was subverted.” Mooney also signed on to a brief asking the Supreme Court to invalidate the election although the court refused to consider the matter.
In April, Mooney was reported to be under investigation for possible misuse of staff for personal errands and tampering with documents. And last summer, the Office of Congressional Ethics determined that Mooney had improperly used campaign donations for personal purchases, trips outside his district, food, his personal car and more.
Published reports said that the main reason that trump endorsed Mooney was that the ex-president was angry that McKinley had voted for President Biden’s massive infrastructure bill to fund improvements on roads, bridges and the broadband infrastructure. Trump endorsed Mooney the day that Biden signed the bill, giving a political prize to the Democrats.
* Dan Cox, running for governor of Maryland, called for a “forensic audit” of the 2020 election results and called then-Vice President Mike Pence a “traitor” during the Capitol attack for not overturning the results of the 2020 presidential election. Cox helped arrange for buses to take constituents to the “Save America March” in Washington, D.C., preceding the riot by trump supporters. Cox supports abortion if a fetal heartbeat is detected and denies the existence of climate change. In October 2020, Cox made a post on his Twitter account that contained hashtags related to the QAnon conspiracy theory and COVID-19 and in April 2022, he attended an event, “Patriots Arise for God and Country” conference, organized by QAnon conspiracy theorists.
* Sarah Huckabee Sanders, running for Arkansas governor, was previously the White House press secretary where she admitted to making false statements and held fewer press conferences than any of the 13 previous White House press secretaries. After former FBI Director James Comey accused trump of lying about the circumstances in which Comey was fired, Sanders said, “I can definitively say the president is not a liar.” She also once told a press gathering that the “president in no way, form or fashion has ever promoted or encouraged violence.”
* Kari Lake, a candidate for governor of Arizona, has made false claims about the 2020 presidential election and has called for imprisoning her opponent for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, on baseless and unspecified allegations of criminality related to the 2020 election.
During her 2021 campaign for governor, Lake said that she would not have certified the 2020 election results if she had been governor at the time. She also has been endorsed by Gosar; former, convicted felon, National Security Advisor Michael Flynn; and Mike “The Pillow Guy” Lindell, one of the leading liars about the alleged voter fraud of 2020.
Lake has led anti-mask rallies and said that if governor she would not tolerate mask requirements and vaccine requirements of the COVID-19 pandemic. She also said in November 2021 that she was taking hydroxychloroquine to prevent COVID-19 infection. The drug has been shown to be ineffective in treating or curing COVID-19.
* Janice McGeachin, candidate for governor of Idaho, posted a photo on her Facebook page of her posing in front of her Idaho State Capitol door with two members of the “3 Percenters,” an anti-government militia movement group. In February 2022, McGeachin was a guest speaker at the America First Political Action Conference, hosted by prominent white nationalist Nick Fuentes.
In her current post as Idaho Lieutenant Governor, McGeachin convened an “education indoctrination task force” in 2021 to deal with “the scourge of critical race theory, socialism, communism, and Marxism” that was “infiltrating” the Idaho school and college system.
In November 2020, McGeachin submitted a proposal to spend $17 million in federal COVID-19 aid funds to purchase and operate two “walk-through disinfectant cubes” at the Idaho state Capitol. Such measures were rejected by the National Institutes of Health as ineffective and possibly dangerous.
* David Perdue, the candidate for governor of Georgia, was a U.S. Senator from 2015 to 2021 and gained trump’s backing because incumbent Republican Brian Kemp had not supported trump’s claims of voter fraud. Purdue supported a lawsuit by trump allies seeking to overturn the election results from Georgia.
In June 2016, at the A”Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority” conference, Perdue said, “We should pray for Barack Obama. But I think we need to be very specific about how we pray. We should pray like Psalms 109:8 says. It says, ‘Let his days be few, and let another have his office.’” Perdue later said that he never mean any harm to come to Obama.
Perdue lost his 2020 Senate bid to Democrat Jon Ossoff, who Perdue said was “endorsed” by the Communist Party of the United States. Perdue also ran an ad in which Ossoff’s nose was enlarged; the apparent use of an anti-Semitic trope was criticized as a dog-whistle reference to Ossoff’s Jewish heritage. The ad featured Ossoff’s image next to that of Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, who is also Jewish, and said Democrats are trying to “buy Georgia.”
In January 2021, an audio recording captured trump pressuring Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to overturn Georgia’s presidential election results and “find” enough votes for him to win. Perdue then criticized Raffensperger for recording the conversation.
* Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, who has trump’s blessings for governor, challenged public health orders issued by Gov. Laura Kelly to address the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, after trump lost, Schmidt refused to acknowledge defeat and joined the failed effort to overturn the election results. Schmidt also was a leading voice in the so-called “birther” movement to have Barack Obama taken off the presidential ballot unless he proved U.S. citizenship.
Schmidt also joined 20 other Republican state attorneys general in objecting to voting rights legislation passed by the House of Representatives, alleging the laws violated the U.S. Constitution and intruded on states’ rights to manage elections.
* Among candidates for U.S. Senate, trump has endorsed Adam Laxalt, a former attorney general from Nevada. As attorney general, Laxalt challenged federal environmental protection regulations, opposed gun regulations, filed legal briefs in support of laws restricting abortion, and opposed a multi-state investigation into ExxonMobil’s role in climate change. He was co-chairman of trump’s 2020 unsuccessful re-election campaign in Nevada and after the election, made false claims of large-scale fraud in Nevada’s election and sought to overturn the election results.
As attorney general, Laxalt also joined lawsuits against the Obama administration over a U.S. Department of Labor regulation to protect certain employees’ right to overtime pay and over Obama’s executive action creating the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) programs. Laxalt also signed on to a California lawsuit to support keeping secret the identities of political donors, including one of his biggest political donors, the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, backed by Charles and David Koch.
Laxalt also opposed a multi-state investigation into ExxonMobil’s alleged role in downplaying climate change, condemning it as an attempt to stifle an “ongoing public policy debate” over human-caused global warming.
In announcing his candidacy for Senate election in Nevada, Laxalt said he would conduct a “culture war” to block “the radical left, rich elites, woke corporations, academia and the media” from “taking over America.”
* Kelly Tshibaka qualified for trump’s endorsement in the U.S. Senate race in Alaska, after making false claims about voter fraud and supporting conversion therapy for homosexuals. But mostly trump wants Tshibaka to defeat Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who voted to convict trump during his second impeachment trial.
Tshibaka served most recently as commissioner of the Alaska Department of Administration before resigning to run for Senate. As a student at Harvard Law School, she endorsed “coming out of homosexuality,” writing approvingly of a day “dedicated to helping homosexuals overcome their sexual tendencies and move towards a healthy lifestyle.” She also urged members of the LGBTQ community to join in “pastoral counseling” and “accountability groups.”
* Jim Bognet, a trump administration appointee in the Export-Import Bank, boasts on his campaign website that he is “pro life, pro wall, pro gun.”
“It is an incredible honor to be endorsed by President Trump. One of the greatest honors of my life was serving in the Trump Administration to bring back jobs to Pennsylvania,” Bognet said. “With the support of President Trump and America First conservatives across Pennsylvania, we will continue to fight every day to stop Joe Biden’s crazy liberal policies.”
* Jake Evans is trump’s pick for Congress in Georgia. “Jake Evans is a young man rapidly on the rise,” Trump said in his announcement. Evans also is the son of Randy Evans, a prominent trump donor and trump’s ambassador to Luxembourg.
* Russell Fry gained trump’s love for Congress from South Carolina, primarily to punish Rep. Tom Rice, R-S.C., who voted to impeach trump. Trump called Rice, “the coward who abandoned his constituents by caving to Nancy Pelosi and the Radical Left, and who actually voted against me on Impeachment Hoax #2, must be thrown out of office.”
* John Gibbs has trump’s endorsement for Congress in Michigan, to unseat freshman Rep. Peter Meijer, R-Mich., who voted to impeach trump. Gibbs served in the Department of Housing and Urban Development and was later nominated by trump, but never approved by Congress, to be director of the Office of Personnel Management.
In 2016, Gibbs tweeted a debunked conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign chairman John Podesta took part in a Satanic ritual. In 2016, Gibbs defended Nazi-era, anti-Semitic propaganda tweeted by the alt-right Twitter account using the handle Ricky Vaughn. In another tweet, Gibbs defended then-Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, who quoted the white supremacist and anti-Semitic, so-called grand replacement conspiracy theory, that Europe would be “entirely transformed within a half-century.”
* Harriet Hageman has trump’s total backing to defeat Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. After voting to impeach trump, Cheney became the voice of Republican opposition to his attempt to overturn the 2020 election. Hageman supported Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in the 2016 presidential primary race and, at the time, called trump “the weakest candidate” who is a “racist and xenophobic.”
* John James is running for congress in Ohio and has trump’s support. James supported Cruz in the 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries but is now “2,000 %” behind trump.
* Vernon Jones, running for congress in Georgia, is backed by trump and served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 1993 to 2001 and from 2017 to 2021.
Jones promoted trump’s false claims of election fraud and spoke at the rally in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, before the trump-backed mob attacked the capitol. If elected, Jones pledged to introduce articles of impeachment against Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
A 2021 examination of Jones’ record by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, found “a long history of problematic behavior toward women, repeatedly accused of threatening, intimidating and harassing women in his personal and professional lives” over three decades.
* Joe Kent was endorsed by trump for Congress from Washington State after Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., voted to impeach trump in January. Several of Kent’s largest campaign contributors are familiar trump supporters, such as Stephen Wynn, the billionaire casino mogul who briefly chaired the Republican National Committee before resigning amid sexual misconduct allegations; and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.
* Anna Paulina Luna is endorsed by trump and Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla, for congress in Florida.
“Anna knows the leftist power structures will stop at nothing to keep someone who looks like her and grew up as she did from being able to impact public policy if they have right-leaning beliefs,” trump said.
Luna’s campaign photo shows her armed with two semi-automatic rifles. She has accused her potential rivals in the GOP primary of plotting to kill her and has obtained temporary restraining orders, claiming that William Braddock, Matt Tito and Amanda Makki were working to “take her out.”
* Max Miller, a former aide to trump, is running for Congress in Ohio and has his ex-boss’s support. Politico examined police and court records, and interviews with more than 60 people in 2021, and reported that Miller had a history of aggressive conduct. He was charged in 2007 with assault, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest and the charges were later dismissed as part of a diversion program. In 2009, Miller was charged with underage drinking and that charge was dismissed under a first-time offenders’ program. In 2010, Miller pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct stemming from a late-night fight in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. In 2011, Miller was charged with “operating a vehicle without reasonable control” after he crashed his Jeep Laredo and told officers that he had had “two to three beers and several shots” the night before and “woke up in urine-soaked pants.”
In October 2021, former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, who had dated Miller, said that he had “been physically abusive” to her, “cheated” on her, and “lied” to her.
In 2020 and 2021, Miller promoted trump’s false claim that the election was “rigged” and he announced his campaign for Congress after Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, R-Ohio, voted to impeach trump for incitement of insurrection, arising from the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
* Derrick Van Orden is running for a seat in Congress in Wisconsin, with trump’s support. In August 2021, Van Orden was found with a loaded handgun in a carry-on bag during a security checkpoint at the Cedar Rapids Municipal Airport. He was at the Capitol at the time of the Jan. 6 insurrection but denies he participated in the riot.
* Ryan Zinke, former Secretary of the Interior under trump, hopes to win a seat in Congress in Montana, with trump’s endorsement. He was Secretary of the Interior from 2017 until he resigned in 2019. Ethical questions were raised because of Zinke’s expenditures as Secretary of the Interior, which included expensive flights. The investigation into Zinke was referred to the Justice Department by Interior’s inspector general on Oct. 30, 2018 and trump announced on Dec. 15, 2018, that Zinke would leave his post.