They're attacking Alex Pretti for having a gun. But here are some famous moments when Trump and the right treated armed protesters like hero
Zeteo:
According to a CNN analysis, Pretti had a gun in his waistband during the confrontation (and had a legal open-carry permit). Between Homeland Security officials like Kristi Noem falsely stating that Pretti was “brandishing” a weapon, and Stephen Miller ridiculously calling him an “assassin” who was trying to kill ICE officials, you would think Pretti had committed his own murder.
In fact, in response to Pretti’s killing, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent went on ABC’s ‘This Week’ to say of his own past protest attendance: “I didn’t bring a gun. I brought a billboard.” Everybody say, ‘Thank You, Scott’ for that contribution.
Donald Trump’s FBI Director Kash Patel falsely claimed on Fox News: “You cannot bring a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want. It’s that simple. You don’t have a right to break the law.”
It’s a change of tune from the GOP. Because, below, from Zeteo, are seven instances in which right-wing protesters have brought far more dangerous weapons than a billboard to a protest, to the resounding praise of conservative lawmakers and media personalities, who even turned some of these armed protesters into heroes and martyrs.
Zeteo has outlined 7 instances of conservatives praising gun owners, such as Kyle Rittenhouse and the McCloskeys, while simultaneously attacking Alex Pretti and his right to own a gun.
America, meet your new deputy assistant secretary for election integrity in the Department of Homeland Security, the improbably named Heathe
Lisa Needham at Daily Kos:
America, meet your new deputy assistant secretary for election integrity in the Department of Homeland Security, the improbably named Heather Honey, who brings with her all the necessary qualifications to work in the Trump administration:
A deep, conspiratorial devotion to believing Donald Trump won the 2020 election.
That’s it. That’s the only qualification that matters.
The administration invented this job for Honey, because hey, you have to reward your loyalists, right? And Honey is indeed a stalwart. Remember the claim that Pennsylvania had 205,000 more votes than voters in the 2020 election? That was from Honey’s “research,” and it’s a lie Trump loved so much that he used it to hype up his insurrectionist minions on Jan. 6, 2021. Her data was both incomplete and misrepresented, but that hasn’t stopped Honey from going on to have a rich life as an election conspiracy theorist for hire.
She helped security consultancy Cyber Ninjas in their comedy-of-errors election audit in Maricopa County, Arizona, which dragged on for months only to prove that Joe Biden did indeed win. Just prior to the 2022 midterms, she issued a report saying that a “shocking 249,000 unverified mail ballots have been sent to applicants who provided invalid identification or no identification at all,” a claim which was picked up by Trump and blasted across Truth Social.
But in Pennsylvania, the designation of “not verified” in the state’s voter database doesn’t mean “Here are hundreds of thousands of voters whose IDs we have never checked and aren’t gonna.” Rather, it is an internal notation that a voter’s ID type was one that needed further verification rather than, say, a driver’s license, which could be automatically cross-checked against the state’s motor vehicle data. Yes, Honey’s five-alarm fire was over a notation that told election officials they needed to ensure the identification was verified.
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Now, instead of real election experts working on real election security, we have one Heather Honey working on election “integrity.” For Trump, that means eliminating mail-in ballots because Russian dictator Vladimir Putin said so. It may also mean getting rid of voting machines, and it definitely means trying to make it harder for millions of people to vote.
Heather Honey, a vile election denier, secures a key gig in the Trump Regime by being appointed to be a “election integrity” official in the DHS.
Christina Bobb, the former Trump staffer turned-OAN host turned-Trump attorney, has built her public profile by promulgating a vast array of
Bobby Lewis and Beatrice Mount at MMFA:
Christina Bobb, the former Trump staffer turned-OAN host turned-Trump attorney, has built her public profile by promulgating a vast array of 2020 election conspiracy theories. Bobb’s stalwart devotion endeared her to Trump, and after he effectively took over the Republican National Committee in March, her loyalty was rewarded with an appointment to RNC senior counsel for election integrity.
For a man as obsessed with the 2020 election as Trump, Bobb is a natural fit to help lead the RNC’s so-called election integrity efforts. She was involved in the Trump campaign’s fake electors scheme to usurp the Electoral College, and is frequently named in litigation surrounding the 2020 election. Bobb covered the Arizona election audit on OAN while also helping to coordinate it behind the scenes. And she launched a coordinated push to enlist election-denying Trump supporters as poll workers — she even wrote a recent book about it, Stealing Your Vote.
Other than her tireless work undermining fair elections, the rest of Bobb’s beliefs read like a laundry list of right-wing misinformation. Describing herself as a “conspiracy theorist,” Bobb has also endorsed the great replacement theory, hyped fears of a second U.S. civil war, and, as an OAN host, spread a notable amount of anti-LGBTQ bigotry, particularly against trans people.
Bobb has appeared on a vast array of far-right podcasts and shows, including regular appearances on a show that also hosted antisemites and white nationalists, Coffee and a Mike. Bobb has also appeared alongside multiple QAnon influencers, several of whom were part of her election denial book tour.
Bobb’s extremist beliefs, her antidemocratic “election integrity” crusade, and her repeated appearance in legal documents alleging defamation related to the 2020 election make her a troubling fit for a role related to “election integrity.”
Bobb is a ride-or-die Trump supporter who made her name pushing 2020 election conspiracy theories on far-right propaganda outlet One America News. As a host and reporter, Bobb insisted that Democrats had stolen the 2020 election by rigging election machines, destroying Republican ballots, and inflating President Joe Biden’s results with phony ballots. [Media Matters 2/22/22, 10/11/22, 11/4/20, 1/27/21; OAN, Weekly Briefing, 11/7/20, 1/9/21]
Bobb notably urged then-Vice President Mike Pence not to certify the election during the January 6 insurrection. While insurrectionists breached the capitol, Bobb tweeted at Pence, saying that he could “solve this now by sending it back to the legislators.” [Media Matters, 1/6/21]
Bobb participated in the Trump campaign’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election while the Trump campaign reportedly retained “veto power” over her OAN stories. While pushing election conspiracies at OAN, Bobb began volunteering for the “elite strike force” led by Trump legal team members and conspiracy theorists Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell shortly after the 2020 presidential election. According to Giuliani, the Trump campaign had “veto power” over Bobb’s stories at OAN. [The Daily Beast, 10/4/21]
Bobb reportedly worked behind the scenes on Trump's fake elector scheme. Bobb attended at least one call about prepping the alternate elector slates. [Media Matters, 1/24/22; The New York Times, 7/26/22; Washington Post, 1/20/22]
Bobb was tied to the Trump legal team’s efforts to seize voting machines. Her name appeared in the metadata of a document “nearly identical” to a draft executive order shared with the January 6 committee, which would have directed the Secretary of Defense to seize voting machines in a desperate bid to overturn the 2020 election. [Politico, 2/9/22, 1/21/22]
After leaving OAN in March 2022, Bobb kept up her focus on supposed election fraud as a Trump lawyer and the Trump 2024 campaign “election integrity director.” Bobb’s title change came with a larger platform. She’s appeared on Fox News, Newsmax, Real America’s Voice, and Right Side Broadcasting Network (RSBN), where she moonlighted as a Trump rally co-host. Bobb used this platform to defend Trump and promote debunked conspiracies and legal theories about U.S. elections. [Business Insider, 9/10/22; Daily Beast, 3/10/22; Twitter/X, 3/30/23, 1/26/23; Media Matters, 10/31/22, 11/17/22; Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 8/15/22; Newsmax, Wake Up America, 8/19/22]
@mediamattersforamerica has a guide of lowlights of former OANN host and serial election-denying Trumpist hack Christina Bobb, who serves as RNC's special counsel on "election integrity."
Christina Bobb is a notorious election denier. And the Republican National Committee wants her help.
Tori Otten at The New Republic:
The Republican National Committee is getting serious about election integrity. And to head up a new unit dedicated to the issue, the RNC has tapped a far-right, pro-Trump election denier.
Since Donald Trump successfully installed his daughter-in-law in an RNC leadership position, the committee has seen a dramatic reshuffle. After major layoffs, senior positions have been stacked with Trump allies, including lawyer Christina Bobb, who has been tapped to lead the RNC’s new election integrity division, The Washington Post reported Tuesday night.
“I look forward to working to secure our elections and restore confidence in the process,” Bobb told the Post in a statement.
Bobb’s appointment should be a major cause for concern. Bobb joined Trump’s legal team last year, and before that, she was an anchor at the far-right network OAN. She was a vocal supporter of 2020 election fraud conspiracy theories, and a nonprofit she founded donated more than $600,000 to the bogus “audit” of votes in Maricopa County, Arizona.
During the 2022 midterm elections, Bobb continued to push falsehoods that the elections might be rigged. She said that any delay in election results should be considered “suspicious,” stoking fear about valid votes.
The MAGA-fied RNC taps former OANN host and ardent election denier Christina Bobb to head up its "election integrity" unit.
OAN host Christina Bobb’s desperate efforts to cast doubt on the 2020 election show no signs of abating. Bobb continues to use her OAN platform to attempt to bring an Arizona-style “audit” to other states by pressuring what she calls “cowardly” Republicans to toe the line, while also spreading new, unsubstantiated suggestions of fraud.
Meanwhile, recent reporting suggests that Bobb was apparently involved in yet another attempt by allies of then-President Donald Trump to keep the presidency despite losing the 2020 election. Politico reported this month that Bobb’s name appeared in metadata as the creator of a document containing a draft executive order directing the Pentagon to seize voting machines.
Bobb did not comment to Politico on the appearance of her name, but her alleged involvement with this attempt to subvert democracy certainly fits a pattern. Bobb worked with fellow Trump sycophant Rudy Giuliani to submit so-called “alternate slates” of Electoral College votes for Trump and soon became a major supporter and funder of election “audits,” heavily promoting her nonprofit on OAN to raise money. And nearly 16 months after the election, she's not slowing down.
Bobb’s pro-audit pressure campaign against Republicans
Bobb has declared that Arizona “set the standard for audits” and is pushing for similar processes in states with GOP-controlled legislatures. But other states haven't progressed with an “audit” at the same pace as Arizona, leading the OAN host to criticize Republicans who won’t follow through and to interview candidates who share her feverish commitment.
OANN's Christina Bobb continues her crusade against the "stolen" 2020 election that wasn't by pushing Arizona-style faux "audits" to other states.
On Thursday, Cyber Ninjas, the Florida-based cybersecurity firm that conducted the controversial partisan "audit" of votes in Maricopa County, Arizona, announced that it was laying off all of its employees, including CEO Doug Logan, and shutting down.
This comes shortly after a report from the Associated Press that the company was held in contempt by an Arizona judge for blocking access to records over its practices during the audit, and faces a fine of $50,000 per day for every day that it fails to turn over the documents.
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Ultimately, the investigation failed to find any evidence the election had been stolen, and actually found more votes for President Joe Biden that had not been counted.
Cyber Ninjas, the firm that conducted the faux "audit" in Maricopa County, Arizona, will shut down.
