Former President Donald Trump and Kayleigh McEnany, former White House press secretary.

Alex Wong/Getty Images

• Sarah Matthews testified the White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was avoiding Trump after the election.
• Matthews said Trump was pressuring McEnany to talk about conspiracy theories involving Dominion.
• McEnany was concerned about violating the Hatch Act from the White House podium, Matthews said.

After the presidential election in 2020, the White House press secretary was trying to avoid then-President Donald Trump because he was trying to convince her to discuss election fraud claims from the White House podium, according to testimony provided to the January 6 committee by a former Trump aide.

The aide, Sarah Matthews, was serving as the White House deputy press secretary at the time of the 2020 election. The House committee investigating the Capitol riot released a new transcript of her testimony, which included Matthews’s description of how White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was managing the president in the weeks after the election.

“I know that post-election, she did try to actively avoid the president,” Matthews said of McEnany, according to the transcript, adding that Trump “wanted her to do briefings from the podium about the campaign, and wanted her to talk about Dominion.”

Dominion Voting Systems, which provides election technology, was at the center of conspiracy theories about election fraud that were pushed by Trump and his allies. Dominion has since brought defamation lawsuits against several Trump allies, including Rudy Giuliani, Mike Lindell, and Sidney Powell, as well as Fox News.

But McEnany, instead of addressing the claims involving Dominion in an official White House briefing, “tried to limit her interactions” with Trump, according to Matthews.

Matthews testified that McEnany confided in her she was avoiding the president specifically because he was making those requests. She also said McEnany was not comfortable addressing the Dominion claims because it would be a “blatant violation of the Hatch Act to do that from the White House podium.” The Hatch Act bans executive branch employees from participating in political activities in their official capacity.

Matthews added that McEnany did continue doing media interviews about the claims of election fraud because she felt she could “make the divide between her government position and doing things in her personal capacity.” McEnany was serving as both the White House press secretary and Trump’s campaign spokesperson at the time.

During an appearance on Fox News at the time, host Neil Cavuto cut away from an interview with McEnany as she pushed unsubstantiated claims of election fraud. In another Fox News interview after the election had been called for Biden, McEnany said Trump would be attending his “own” inauguration.

The transcript of Matthews’ testimony was released by the January 6 committee on Thursday, along with the testimony of Chris Krebs, Mark Esper, and others.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Jan. 6 committee’s final report asserts that Donald Trump criminally engaged in a “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 presidential election and failed to act to stop his supporters from attacking the Capitol, concluding an extraordinary 18-month investigation into the former president and the violent insurrection two years ago.

The 845-page report released Thursday comes after the panel interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses, held 10 hearings and obtained millions of pages of documents. The witnesses — ranging from many of Trump’s closest aides to law enforcement to some of the rioters themselves — detailed Trump’s actions in the weeks ahead of the insurrection and how his wide-ranging pressure campaign to overturn his defeat directly influenced those who brutally pushed past the police and smashed through the windows and doors of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The central cause was “one man,” the report says: Trump.

The insurrection gravely threatened democracy and “put the lives of American lawmakers at risk,” the nine-member panel concluded.

In a foreword to the report, outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the findings should be a “clarion call to all Americans: to vigilantly guard our Democracy and to give our vote only to those dutiful in their defense of our Constitution.”

The report’s eight chapters of findings tell the story largely as the panel’s hearings did this summer — describing the many facets of the remarkable plan that Trump and his advisers devised to try and void President Joe Biden’s victory. The lawmakers describe his pressure on states, federal officials, lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence to game the system or break the law.

Trump’s repeated, false claims of widespread voter fraud resonated with his supporters, the committee said, and were amplified on social media, building on the distrust of government he had fostered for his four years in office. And he did little to stop them when they resorted to violence and stormed the Capitol.

The massive, damning report comes as Trump is running again for the presidency and also facing multiple federal investigations, including probes of his role in the insurrection and the presence of classified documents at his Florida estate. This week is particularly fraught for him, as a House committee is expected to release his tax returns after he has fought for years to keep them private. And Trump has been blamed by Republicans for a worse-than-expected showing in the midterm elections, leaving him in his most politically vulnerable state since he won the 2016 election.

It is also a final act for House Democrats who are ceding power to Republicans in less than two weeks, and have spent much of their four years in power investigating Trump. Democrats impeached Trump twice, the second time a week after the insurrection. He was acquitted by the Senate both times. Other Democratic-led probes investigated his finances, his businesses, his foreign ties and his family.

On Monday, the panel of seven Democrats and two Republicans officially passed their investigation to the Justice Department, recommending the department investigate the former president on four crimes, including aiding an insurrection. While the criminal referrals have no legal standing, they are a final statement from the committee after its extensive, year-and-a-half-long probe.

Trump has tried to discredit the report, slamming members of the committee as “thugs and scoundrels” as he has continued to falsely dispute his 2020 loss.

In response to the panel’s criminal referrals, Trump said: “These folks don’t get it that when they come after me, people who love freedom rally around me. It strengthens me.”

The committee has also begun to release hundreds of transcripts of its interviews. On Thursday, the panel released transcripts of two closed-door interviews with former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who testified in person at one of the televised hearings over the summer and described in vivid detail Trump’s efforts to influence the election results and indifference toward the violence as it occurred.

In the two interviews, both conducted after her July appearance at the hearing, she described how many of Trump’s allies, including her lawyer, pressured her not to say too much in her committee interviews.

___

Follow the AP’s coverage of the Capitol insurrection at https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege

___

Associated Press writers Eric Tucker, Farnoush Amiri, Lisa Mascaro, Jill Colvin, Nomaan Merchant and Michael Balsamo contributed to this report.

It is never a good thing when hubris comes knocking at the door. Bad, bad things happen if one lets hubris in. All throughout history, that’s been proven; it is a rare thing indeed when hubris triumphs.

And right now, hubris has knocked on the door of Elon Musk. And the billionaire cheerfully told hubris to take a seat. That might be why Musk’s life is sort of spinning out of control these days. And nowhere is that more evident than with his other company, Tesla.

People — a large number of people — are starting to cancel their Tesla orders. It is being reported that many potential customers are demanding a refund. “His personality is absolutely tanking the Tesla brand,” said one biotech executive.

It’s true. Tesla shares have fallen, and its reputation is being tarnished in real time all because the owner has apparently had or is having some right-wing meltdown. Many of the people who are cancelling their orders are saying they do not want to be associated with the brand because they are repulsed by the owner’s hijinks.

Tesla is losing money — a lot of money. Does Musk even care? Has the hubris wrapped itself around him so hard that he has stopped caring about his pride and joy? Right-wing activism will do that to you. Bill Palmer has noted that people who become conspiracy theorists seem to lose control of their lives. They almost always begin a downward spiral.

Calling social psychologists — we need a report on this phenomenon. For Musk, his livelihood, his reputation, and billions of dollars are teetering on the brink — all because he invited hubris to have a seat at the table.

The post Falling apart at the seams appeared first on Palmer Report.

For President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, his surprise visit to Washington this week was a clear success: he returns to Europe with new financial and military commitments from the United States and bipartisan support for Ukraine’s war with Russia.

But the visit also leaves several key questions unanswered, including how U.S. military support could evolve, whether Congressional support for the war will endure and – crucially – how the war will end.

While in Washington Zelenskiy met U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House and addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress, where members greeted him with cheers and multiple standing ovations.

Biden announced that the United States would provide another $1.85 billion in military aid, including a Patriot missile defense system.

The visit came as Ukraine continues to suffer near-continual Russian air attacks on its power grid during a bitterly cold winter, which Kyiv says are aimed at breaking its civilians’ will to resist.

At the top of Zelinskiy’s military hardware wishlist has been air defenses, in particular the Patriot, a surface-to-air missile system that is highly effective against aircraft and ballistic and cruise missiles.

While Biden has agreed to supply one of the systems, U.S. officials say that a single Patriot battery will not the change the course of the war.

The United States and its allies have been unwilling to provide other advanced weapons Ukraine has pleaded for. Those include modern battle tanks and long-range missiles called ATACMS that have a range of 300 km (186 miles) and could strike targets far behind the frontlines but also inside Russia itself.

“The aim of the United States – to both support Ukraine while ensuring the U.S. and NATO don’t get pulled into a broader war – will continue to preclude the shipment of the sort of weaponry Zelenskiy really wants,” said Rachel Rizzo, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council.

Ukraine is “not looking for a third world war,” said Biden on Wednesday, responding to a reporter’s question about ATACMS during Zelensiky’s visit.

Russia has said that providing long-range missiles to Ukraine would cross a “red line”.

For his part, Zelenskiy said that he and Biden have a clear understanding of how Ukraine’s defense capabilities can be strengthened in the coming months, adding that he couldn’t give details at this point.

Two U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. focus currently remains on air defense systems.

The next steps for Kyiv, the officials added, would be to receive additional air defense systems from the United States and other western countries along with better integrating them.

Political support for U.S. support for Ukraine has been remarkably bipartisan. But as the war passes the 300-day mark criticism from the Republican party’s right wing is growing.

“No more blank checks to Ukraine,” Republican Representative Andy Biggs wrote on Twitter hours before Zelenskiy’s visit to Washington.

Congress is preparing to vote on an additional $44.9 billion in new military and economic assistance, which comes on top of the $50 billion the United States has already sent this year to help Ukraine. Approval is seen as likely.

But new spending is sure to face scrutiny once Republicans take a majority of the House of Representatives on Jan. 3.

A senior Republican congressional aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that most members of the incoming majority in the House support military aid for Ukraine.

But, the aide added, they will demand stronger monitoring of how Ukraine uses U.S. hardware and clearer explanations from the Biden administration.

“The administration is not doing a good job communicating to Congress” on Ukraine strategy, said the aide. Republicans “need a better understanding of why they are saying no to some weapons and yes to others.”

Finally, Zelenskiy’s visit added little clarity to the question of how the war will end.

The Ukrainian president said that Biden has endorsed his “10-point peace plan,” which among other things calls for the complete withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territory and the creation of a special tribunal to prosecute Russian war crimes, conditions Russia has flatly rejected.

“For me, as the President, ‘just peace’ is no compromises as to the sovereignty, freedom, and territorial integrity of my country, the payback for all the damages inflicted by Russian aggression,” said Zelenskiy on Wednesday.

Zelenskiy has previously said that victory means recovering Crimea, which Russia siezed in 2014.

The Group of Seven (G7) wealthy nations broadly endorsed Ukraine’s vision of peace in October, citing a need for “territorial integrity” but avoided any mention of Crimea.

The Kremlin, however, said on Wednesday that it saw no chance of peace talks with Kiev.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres struck a similarly downbeat note earlier in the week.

“I do believe that the military confrontation will go on, and I think we’ll have still to wait for a moment in which serious negotiations for peace will be possible,” he told reporters on Monday. “I don’t see them in the immediate horizon.”

China has sanctioned two Americans in retaliation for U.S. sanctions against two Chinese officials over human rights in Tibet, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Friday.

Anti-sanctions measures against historian Miles Yu and Todd Stein, a staff with the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China, will take effect from Friday, according to an order signed by Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi and announced on a ministry social media account on Friday.

China will freeze all Chinese assets of Yu and Stein, and ban any organisation or individual within China from engaging with them. Both men and their family members are also banned from entering China.

A major fire broke out at Chile’s Ventanas port near a refinery and smelter belonging to state-run miner Coldeco, but the company said on Thursday that operations have not been affected by the blaze.

Codelco’s smelter near the port was already shut down due to maintenance, while the refinery is operating normally, according to Codelco, the world’s top copper producer.

No injuries have been reported from the fire, the company that administers the port said in a statement. It said the incident occurred in a solid bulk cargo conveyor belt and spread to other nearby facilities.

Local media published images showing large amounts of dark smoke billowing out from the port, located about 90 miles (145 kilometres) northwest of the capital Santiago.

AES Chile, which operates a coal-fired power plant near the port, said in a statement that it is taking all measures to prevent the fire from reaching its installations.

It added that unit 2 of its plant, which is closest to the blaze, has been taken offline due to company security protocols, while other units are operating normally.

Ukraine’s military said Russia had pulled some troops from towns on the opposite bank of the Dnipro River from Kherson city, the first official Ukrainian report of a Russian withdrawal on what is now the main front line in the south..

* Spain has stepped up security at public and diplomatic buildings after a spate of letter bombs, including one sent to Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and another to the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid, where an official suffered minor injuries.

* Air raid alerts were issued across all of Ukraine following warnings by Ukrainian officials that Russia was preparing a new wave of missile and drone strikes. “An overall air raid alert is in place in Ukraine. Go to shelters,” country’s border service wrote on Telegram messaging app.

* Ukraine’s military said it had found fragments of Russian-fired nuclear-capable missiles with dud warheads in west Ukraine, and that their apparent purpose was to distract air defences.

* The recently liberated Ukrainian city of Kherson has lost its power supply after heavy shelling by Russian forces, the regional governor said.

* European Union governments tentatively agreed on a $60 a barrel price cap on Russian seaborne oil, with an adjustment mechanism to keep the cap at 5% below the market price, an EU diplomat said.

* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on that big problems had accumulated in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), accusing the West of spurning the chance to make it a real bridge with Russia after the Cold War.

* Lavrov said that discussions with Washington about potential prisoner exchanges were being conducted by the two countries’ intelligence services, and that he hoped they would be successful.

* The European Union needs patience as it sanctions Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, as most measures will only have an impact in the medium and long term, Lithuania’s prime minister said in an interview at  the  Reuters NEXT conference.

* Switzerland has frozen financial assets worth 7.5 billion Swiss francs ($7.94 billion) as of Nov. 25 under sanctions against Russians to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) said.

* Russia said the German parliament’s move to recognise the 1932-33 famine in Ukraine as a Soviet-imposed genocide was an anti-Russian provocation and an attempt by Germany to whitewash its Nazi past.

* Ukraine sacked a top engineer at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, accusing him of collaborating with Russian forces, and urged other Ukrainian staff at the plant to remain loyal to Kyiv.

* Russia must withdraw its heavy weapons and military personnel from the Zaporizhzhia plant if the U.N. atomic watchdog’s efforts to create a protection zone are to succeed, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.

* In a grim sign of the energy crisis caused by Russian attacks on Ukraine’s electricity grid, nine people have been killed in fires over the past 24 hours as Ukrainians resorted to emergency generators, candles and gas cylinders in violation of safety rules to try to heat their homes after power outages.

* “Remember one thing – the Russians are afraid. And they are very cold and no one will help them, because they do not have popular support,” – Andriy Yermak, chief of Ukrainian presidential staff.

Related Galleries:

WASHINGTON, DC – JULY 21: Sarah Matthews (R), former deputy White House press secretary, testifies before the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol in the Cannon House Office Building on July 21, 2022 in Washington, DC.

Win McNamee/Getty Images

• The January 6 committee released a new trove of transcripts on Thursday.
• Among them was an interview with former White House communications aide Sarah Matthews.
• Matthews shed light on her process for figuring out which tweets Trump sent out himself.

A former White House communications official who resigned from her post after the January 6 insurrection said that she had a method for deciphering which tweets were personally drafted by former President Donald Trump, and which were written by top advisors.

Sarah Matthews, a White House aide who worked for Trump from 2017 to 2021, testified to the January 6 committee that she occasionally worked with former chief of staff Dan Scavino to help draft tweets for Trump, according to the transcript released on Thursday along with a trove of other testimonies from officials close to Trump around the time of the riot.  

Ultimately, in the February 8, 2022 interview, she told the committee that it was “painfully obvious” when Trump decided to tweet on his own. 

Matthews said that she was rarely involved in the process of drafting his tweets, reporting to then-press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. But “sometimes you could tell when a tweet was written by him,” Matthews said, per the transcript.

“The phrasing of it, the capitalization of letters,” she continued, adding that Scavino’s drafted tweets were “more grammatically correct.”

Matthews became Trump’s deputy press secretary in the last months of his frayed presidency, resigning in protest on January 6, claiming that she was “deeply disturbed” by the events of the day. She later testified in front of the January 6 committee on July 21, 2022, echoing sentiments in the newly-released testimony.

“In times of crises, you want your leader to meet the moment, and to me, it felt like he didn’t meet the moment,” Matthews said in the testimony released on Thursday. “I kept thinking, okay, well, maybe he’ll get this tweet right.”

Matthews was referring to a tweet from January 6, when Trump asked for “everyone at the US Capitol to remain peaceful.” Matthews said in her testimony that as images emerged of rioters inside the Capitol building, she and other staffers in the White House communications office felt Trump should issue more of a condemnation of the violence.

In the February witness testimony shared by the committee on Thursday, Matthews said that she resigned because the attack felt personal, which she testified about in July. Matthews tweeted on the anniversary of the attack this year, calling what happened a “coup attempt.”

“One year ago, we as a country experienced one of the darkest days in American history,” Matthews tweeted in January. “Make no mistake, the events on the 6th were a coup attempt, a term we’d use had they happened in any other country, and former President Trump failed to meet the moment.”