https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/1317816172117659649
“We don’t have agreement in the language yet,” Speaker Pelosi says when asked if they are closer to reaching a deal on COVID-19 stimulus negotiations, adding, “we’re seeking clarity” because Trump administration officials are “not legislators.”
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/house-decide-president/story?id=73640149
What happens if the House has to decide the next president?
A bitterly divided country deadlocked in a 269-269 Electoral College tie turns to the House of Representatives to select the next president.
The unusual constitutional scenario is considered so far-fetched it hasn't happened since 1824 that it was written into the plot of the fifth season of HBO comedy series "Veep" and its send-up of the political class.
But in a year when coronavirus-related voting changes could have an unpredictable impact on an already competitive presidential race between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, it's a potential, if remote, election outcome Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have openly acknowledged.
"I don't want to end up in the Supreme Court and I don't want to go back to Congress either, even though we have an advantage," Trump said of the election at a Sept. 26 Pennsylvania rally.
Pelosi fired back in a letter to House Democrats two days later, encouraging members to support candidates in "key districts" across the country.
"If Trump can't win at the ballot box, he wants the House to deliver him the presidency," she wrote. "It's sad we have to plan this way, but it's what we must do to ensure the election is not stolen."
https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/1317832832883040256
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/president-trump-denounce-qanon-baseless-osama-bin-laden/story?id=73620659
GStephanopoulos: As head of the GOP are you prepared to condemn QAnon?
McDaniel claims it's “something the voters are not thinking about” and it is a “fringe group.”
GS: "So do you condemn it?"
McDaniel: “I just told you - dismissed them out of hand.”
>https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/president-trump-denounce-qanon-baseless-osama-bin-laden/story?id=73620659
President Trump does not denounce QAnon, baseless Osama bin Laden conspiracy theory at town hall
The president was then given an opportunity to "once and for all denounce QAnon in its entirety," and not only did the president refuse to denounce the group but he again praised the far-right extremist conspiracy theory for being "very strongly against pedophilia."
"I know nothing about QAnon," Trump said. "I know very little. You told me, but what you told me does not necessarily make it fact. I hate to say that. I know nothing about it. I do know they are very much against pedophilia, they fight it very hard. But I know nothing about it."
The president has repeatedly refused to condemn the QAnon conspiracy, despite the FBI declaring conspiracy theory movements like QAnon to be potential domestic terror threats. In an August press briefing, he said they "love the country" and appreciated their backing.
>Maybe the watches were all gifts from the same company/person.
>https://twitter.com/mtracey/status/1316107901363200001
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/10/13/whitmer-kidnap-plot-defense-adam-fox-kaleb-franks/3639980001/
Defense says Gov. Whitmer kidnap plot was just 'big talk between crackpots'
There was no real plan to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, but only "military wannabes" who engaged in "big talk" and played with guns in the woods, defense lawyers argued in federal court Tuesday.
As one defense lawyer suggested, the case appears to be one of "big talk between crackpots," or "people who talk a lot … but are never going to do anything."
"Have you ever dealt with big talkers?" defense attorney Scott Graham asked an FBI agent on cross-examination, adding: "There's kind of a military-wanna-be theme that runs between the militias."
Graham was grilling FBI special agent Richard Trask about his testimony that at least 13 self-described militia members plotted to kidnap Whitmer from her vacation home and do one of two things: either take her on a boat in the middle of Lake Michigan and leave her there, or, take her to Wisconsin and try her for treason.
Graham asked agent Trask how the suspects planned to get Whitmer to Wisconsin.
The agent had no specific answer, beyond saying there were audio recordings of the suspects discussing a plan to take Whitmer to another state, among them Wisconsin.
Graham then asked the agent what the suspects planned to do with Whitmer after they left her in the lake. The agent had no specific answer, beyond testifying that the accused ringleader, Adam Fox, wanted to "take her out on a boat and leave her in the middle of Lake Michigan."
Graham is representing Kaleb Franks, 26, of Waterford, one of three defendants who were denied bond Tuesday after the prosecutor convinced the judge that the men were a danger to society. Daniel Harris, 23, of Lake Orion and Brandon Caserta, 32, of Canton Township, also were denied bond.
Detention hearings are scheduled for Friday for Fox, the accused ring leader, and Ty Garbin, 24, of Hartland Township.
All five defendants appeared in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids, where the government disclosed shocking new allegations in the case, including: Fox wanted to take Whitmer out on a boat and leave her in Lake Michigan; the group talked about also kidnapping Virginia's governor; and one suspect — a decorated Marine — allegedly asked his cohorts if they were interested in killing a cop in Maine for one of his friends.
Defense lawyers, meanwhile, argued that the government has only produced snippets of conversations in the case and that there is no evidence that the accused had any real plan to kidnap Whitmer. They said that it remains to be seen what roles the undercover informants and FBI agents played in the case, and whether they pushed the others into carrying out the plan, which in the end was foiled when FBI agents arrested five men during a setup on Oct. 7.
According to the FBI, the defendants thought they were going to buy explosives and tactical gear from an associate, but FBI agents were there instead.
Gary Springstead — the Grand Rapids-based attorney representing Ty Garbin, 24, of Hartland Township — told reporters outside the courthouse that he believes there is still more evidence to be presented.
“I haven’t had a full opportunity to review all of the evidence,” Springstead said “… I think my co-counsel made good points that (the evidence presented today) is a snapshot. A lot of quick points in a big time frame. You don’t know what else is happening outside of that time frame.
“So, I’m sure in our investigation (which) we’re going to conduct ourselves, and not rely solely on the federal government to tell us what happened, we’ll try to round out that information and figure out what happened in the times that weren’t captured on tape that weren’t captured in text to put it into fuller context so we can better assess where we stand in the case.”
Springstead also said the use of an informant in the investigation to thwart the plot raises questions. Feds said an informant wore wires to meetings to record the men charged and collect information on the kidnapping plan.
“(I)t’s become an issue in certain cases where the informant pushes some of the information, and the court and the government and the defense attorneys have to be leery of that,” Springstead told reporters. “Because their job is not to assess what the government informant wants them to do, it’s to assess the accused’s intent and what they actually planned on doing.”
Defense attorney Michael Darragh Hills, who is representing Caserta, said his client didn't actually plan on doing anything, even though the government said that Caserta threatened to kill police officers.
Hill argued that the threats were rhetorical and never acted on.
But the prosecutor played a video in court, in which Caserta is heard saying he wants to take out as many police officers as possible, referring to them as "motherf--s," and "government thugs."
That video may have cost Caserta his freedom as U.S. Magistrate Judge Sally Berens called the video "very chilling" and cited it as a reason for denying him bond.
It "really makes it impossible" to require a probation officer to monitor him given his "overt threat to law enforcement," said Berens.
Still, defense lawyers contend that there was no probable cause to arrest and charge the suspects, arguing, among other things, that the suspects had no operational plan to do anything, were engaged in all legal activities — including talking in encrypted group chats and practicing military exercises with lawfully owned guns — and that it was the informants and undercover agents who "pushed" others to do illegal things.
"One of the most active leaders was your informant," Graham said.
Assisted U.S. Attorney Nils Kessler blasted those arguments, saying the accused took actual steps to carry out their plan: they conducted surveillances three times on Whitmer's vacation home.
"Have you ever heard of someone casing someone's house," Kessler asked the FBI agent in an effort to point out the surveillance was "a red flag."
Moreover, the prosecutor argued during questioning, one militia member from Wisconsin who was supposed to be part of the vacation home surveillance went home that night, thinking: "If this is what the Michigan Militia people are about, I want nothing to do with it."
Kessler also asked the FBI agent to clarify for the court who the leader of the kidnap plot was:
"Adam Fox," replied the agent, referring to the 37-year-old Potterville man who lived in the basement of a Grand Rapids-area vacuum repair shop, where he also allegedly held meetings with his accomplices — including an informant who was wearing a wire.
In court Tuesday, a handcuffed Fox sat next to his lawyer with chains around his belly. He was the only defendant in court without a mask.