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You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / The Emails are Coming from Inside the House

The Emails are Coming from Inside the House

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Well this both confirms everything you suspected and were afraid of:

The email detailed that the Oath Keepers security detail would be composed of “primarily retired law enforcement/former military members who are very pro-LEO [law enforcement officer] and Pro Trump. Their stated purpose is to provide protection and medical attention to Trump supporters if they come under attack by leftist groups.”

The Secret Service member who spoke to Rhodes even admitted to other members in the agency that he was an Oath Keeper himself. “I am the unofficial liaison to the Oath Keepers (inching towards official),” he wrote.

The CREW report confirms Rhodes’ claims last year that the far-right group had a contact within the Secret Service. Rhodes admitted this during his trial, when he was charged with seditious conspiracy for attempting to stop Joe Biden’s presidential win.

The right wing fanatics are embedded in every aspect of law enforcement and the military, and that’s to say nothing of the whole constitutional sheriff mess. And they need to be outed. Period.

There is no way that Kamala Harris is safe around Oath Keepers. They probably won’t ever do anything to Biden, but should something happen to him, I would legit be afraid to have a security service with an oath keeper in it “protecting” her.

I’m sure this also has nothing to do with the Secret Service deleting texts from January 6 when a watchdog asked for them.

Reader Interactions

219Comments

  3. 3.

    lee

    Always remember that Biden brought in Secret Service from his time as VP to replace Trump’s.

     

    Biden was well aware of this problem.

  5. 5.

    MattF

    We were lucky that these American Brown Shirts were never really well organized. All preening and shaking-of-fists.

  6. 6.

    sab

    Cleveland Ohio had a starting class at their police academy of 12. Then 3 of them just dropped out. Not cop material, or don’t want to be Cleveland cops?  One of them was Jayland Walker’s best friend, who wanted to be a cop but not an Akron cop after what they did to Jayland.

  7. 7.

    sab

    @lee: Quietly savvy.

    ETA Biden has always been quiet. Dark Brandon gives him an alter ego to let his dark side out. I love it, because I want him to respond but I don’t want him to lose his bright side. To me that is who he is.

  10. 10.

    MisterDancer

    #BlackLivesMatter was right.

    And frankly, I suspect we have similar issues in the DoJ that’s a real reason  the work to deal with Jan6 is so long and tedious. Not because Garland is as asshole, but because he and his team has to work around anyone in the Department sympathetic to Alt-Right ideas.

    But because that’s hard to determine and involves agreeing that racism impacts Justice in America…well. It’s easier to scapegoat one man, than all the fuckwits like these Secret Service wankers elsewhere in the Federal LEOs.

    (Not everything is about Race. But a depressing amount of bullshit rolls up to it.)

  12. 12.

    Baud

    This guy apparently chose to represent himself.

    Jan. 6 defendant representing himself at trial compares himself to Brett Kavanaugh

    Brandon Fellows also said he liked that members of Congress were fearing for their lives during the Capitol attack.

  13. 13.

    Anoniminous

    It all makes sense once you know the modern US police grew out of the Colonial slave patrols.

  14. 14.

    Roger Moore

    @MattF: ​
     

    We were lucky that these American Brown Shirts were never really well organized. All preening and shaking-of-fists.

    It’s worth checking out what happened to the original Brown Shirts when their usefulness had come to an end. I don’t think the Oathkeepers and Proud Boys would do any better than the SA once Trump really felt confident as dictator.

  16. 16.

    blindyone

    @Baud: May you live in interesting times is supposed to be more of a curse than a blessing, right? I think we are.

  19. 19.

    sab

    OT Talking today about elementary school in Florida in the 1960s ( so much fun, a wonderland) and her elementary school in Ohio eleven years later ( horrifying. Beat up by a classmate every day who was acting out because she was being raped every day.) Baby sister and classmate told everyone from their parents to their school officials and not one single adult believed them.

  21. 21.

    wjca

    @Fraud Guy:

    “They need to be outed” and ousted.

    Formally, and officially, fired for cause.  No “resigned for personal reasons” or other smokescreen.

  22. 22.

    Tony G

    With this level of rot in the Secret Service, the logical thing would be to force them all to re-apply for their jobs, with a full vetting process to weed out the right-wing traitors.  That won’t happen, of course.

  29. 29.

    sab

    @sab: If your child or your sibling is behaving wildly out of character you need to probe. Something is happening there and a child needs your help.

  32. 32.

    sab

    @sab: Context: talking with my baby sister, eleven years younger than me. Grew up in a different state.

    ETA Just a random get in touch with your sibling phone call and this came out. I was  another person who failed them.

  33. 33.

    MisterDancer

    @Anoniminous: Yes chattle enslavement of my ancestors triggered off a lot of shit. But also keep in mind it’s 1830’s Boston that sees the 1st formal citywide police force. And although I’m sure they were racist as fuck, I doubt they were patrolling for slaves.

    Racism binds together a lot of actions and law enforcement regardless of the local status of Slavery in most of America. Especially when you fold in reactions to immigrants,  from what little I’ve researched so far.

  34. 34.

    Suzanne

    @Baud: I’ve joked that I would drink every time they say “wokeness” but I would get shit-faced in about 15 minutes.

  40. 40.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Anoniminous: Slave patrols, but also organized crime.

    I’ve wondered for a long time if a nationwide police coup to overthrow the American constitutional order would be possible. It seems like the fascists in the police departments have never been quite nationally organized enough to do it and would rather just exist as a law unto themselves than take over. And on Jan. 6, 2021 you had off-duty cops among the insurrectionists trying to kill Capitol Police. So maybe they never could get it together, but I still wonder.

  46. 46.

    Scout211

    Reading about the Secret Service communications with the Proud Boys throughout the day today, it just makes me freaked out to imagine what would have happened had all those “leftist groups” actually showed up to protest Trump’s speech on January 6th.

  52. 52.

    Anoniminous

    @MisterDancer:

    By then 200 years of slavery had caused white attitudes to set.  So the Boston police weren’t specifically established to send escaping slaves I doubt they gave a damn when they did.  And 230 years further on MLK’s experience in Boston is instructive.

  53. 53.

    sab

    @MisterDancer: Oliver Wendall Holmes Sr thought it was a conflict of interest that Boston’s first cops were Irish and patrolling for Irish criminals.

    Some of our leaders are morons.

  57. 57.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    Urban dictionary just changed the definition of cringe to – the 8-23 GOP Debate.

    Yikes.

  62. 62.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    Bret Baier let his mask of neutrality and objectivity slip with his stupid impersonation of Biden whispering. What a dick.

  63. 63.

    Suzanne

    @HumboldtBlue: Republicans love bleached blonde hair. I see bottle blonde and I instantly think small-town beauty queen doing a ribbon-cutting at a car dealership.

  65. 65.

    MomSense

    DeSantis was advised to work on his smile but it looks like a grimace.  He is so creepy.

  66. 66.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @HumboldtBlue:

    I’m not watching (no cable, and it doesn’t seem to be streaming anywhere), but please, I beg of you, tell me that isn’t one of the candidates.

  68. 68.

    Sure Lurkalot

    So brave that none of these asshats believe in AGW.  We have countries and islands on fire, tropical storms in California, record heat and floods.  Just another summer of weird weather, I guess.

    Why the hell would you vote for someone who will do nothing in the face of your grandchildren inheriting an uninhabitable planet?

  69. 69.

    MomSense

    I don’t know where they are getting their “facts” or their bizarre economic theories.  The climate change segment was awkward and this abortion round is also bizarre.

    Vivek thinks climate change is a hoax.

  70. 70.

    CaseyL

    @patrick Ii:

    @Alison Rose:

    Answering the question you want to answer, versus the one you were asked, is Basic Political “Debate” 101.  I think almost everyone, including Democrats, does it.

    It’s a good and useful tactic if the reporter is asking some damnfool gotcha questions, and/or if there is a point, policy, or observation that a politician strongly wants to mention.

  72. 72.

    Abnormal Hiker

    For those who like black humour, check out the WaPo liveblog with Henry Olsen, Megan McArdle, et al.

  73. 73.

    MisterDancer

    @Anoniminous: But Dr. King’s experiences in Boston (Chicago, too) are a key point. Black people didn’t become second class in America only because we were enslaved. Slavery was a critical part — but as many other immigration stories underline, Law Enforcement in America has been constructed to enforce that division for a number of groups, including ones that far predate any European, African, or Asian visitors to these shores.

    That’s why I use the term Racism, to bring in a host of issues that have impacted policing for generations. I say that because the experience of other countries show that, even if you don’t have a slave state, you have these issues in your law enforcement.

    I’m not saying Slavery didn’t influence Racist opinions. I’m aware of, for example,  the many Union people who hated Slavery but also didn’t want Black folx anywhere near to them, didn’t really care if we were slave or free.

    But when I look at the treatment of other groups coming to America? I tend to think that the kind of Racism that has led to corruption in the LEO ranks is about more than Black people — although, yeah, I’m still at too much risk of dying if a cop stops me! There’s just a broader, more complex and nuanced story that’s about more than the effects of Slavery here, in my opinion. And that’s part of why I sum up as Racist, and not Slavery, in this specific case.

    Also, too: Regardless of how it started, modern LEO behavior is certainly a broad spectrum of Racist and Antisemitic behaviors, along with issues like Homo-and-Transphobia, Sexism, and so on. I’d rather point to something of modern concern, of a challenge that is real and active and needing to be fought, over a historical issue that still carries trauma in communities,  but also reads as something already fixed.

    Chattle Slavery on that scale is done in America. Racism is still a whole-assed problem,  and is indeed the problem in the Secret Service that needs addressing.

  74. 74.

    Mike in NC

    Highly recommend “Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service” by Carol Leonnig. They need a serious house cleaning in that agency.

  75. 75.

    patrick Ii

    I hate to say it, but good for FOX for asking a question about climate change and Bret Baier for telling  DeSantis  to answer the question.

    After that it was a complete clusterf* of course, but it is the first time I have at  heard a question about climate change in a debate for a long time.

  81. 81.

    kalakal

    @CaseyL: There’s a time honoured English tradition as to how you do that

    “I’m glad you asked that question because it raises the important point that… my opponent smells of elderberries”

  84. 84.

    Gin & Tonic

    Why do all the Fulton County mug shots look like the camera is at least a foot over the heads of the accused?

  85. 85.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Abnormal Hiker:

    You failed to trigger-warn us that that innocent-looking little “et al” included Marc Thiessen. Click.

    I’m going back to Evan Hurst’s snarky live blog over Wonkette way.

  88. 88.

    MomSense

    I’m still trying to figure out WTF happened with the lady DeSantis met who survived being aborted three times (huh???) and was left in a pan.

  93. 93.

    patrick Ii

    I admire the way a Republican candidate can say he stands for law and order with a straight face.

    Actually later Hutchinson does o.ok.

  96. 96.

    Suzanne

    I am surprised by how much of a non-factor Rhonda Santis is tonight. Even Mike Pence is more vivacious.

  102. 102.

    Jackie

    @Suzanne: I stopped watching after first question to Pudd’n Boots, he brought up Hunter. I’ll get the lowlights on the post debate show on MSNBC.

  108. 108.

    Yarrow

    I’m impressed with you who can stomach watching the Republican “debate.” I couldn’t do it.

  110. 110.

    kalakal

    @Yarrow: I’m not a ghoul, I don’t gawk at car crashes but this pathetic spectacle does have a morbid fascination for me. They are all utterly useless.

  111. 111.

    Misterpuff

    Ramaswamy is Cornholio.

    He swings his huge head back like Beavis.

    I can’t not see it now.

  117. 117.

    Misterpuff

    Fox’s questions really “lead the witness”, they have done a great job setting the structure of the cluster. I say unhappily.

  118. 118.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    @Suzanne:

    Vivek wants “faith-based” approaches to “the mental health crisis”.

    So far, Vivek has come across as the dumbest and most obnoxious candidate on the debate stage with DeSantis a close second.

  123. 123.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    No wonder Major Biden kept biting these people, he could sniff out the threats

  124. 124.

    Suzanne

    I have to say, the Governor of Florida bleating about drugs coming over the border just makes me LMAO. Like all of the country’s cocaine doesn’t come through his state.

  125. 125.

    MomSense

    Oh god DeSantis needs to stop meeting people.  Now it’s a mother whose son took one Percocet laced with Fentanyl and he died.  Does Purdue Pharma know about this serious quality control issue?

  126. 126.

    jimmiraybob

    Yikes! Watched 10 minutes. Need to watch “Idiocracy” to cleanse the palate.

    Governor “Stone Cold Dead” ……

    Senator fire the IRS and send the military to the southern border ……

    Out for blood.

  129. 129.

    Jeffro

    I wasn’t gonna watch, but Froette texted me that it was out of control, and so yeah, I’m watching.

    Show me how any one of these clowns somehow wrests the nomination from trump.

    Show me how any one of these clowns somehow manages to unite the Republican Party and sweeps to victory.

    LOL

    GOP, you are so, so effed.

  130. 130.

    marcopolo

    So the Wisconsin Dems are using the debate as a fundraiser they are calling : “Cheddar Storm.”

    The initial goal was $10K and now they are pushing towards $30K.  If anyone would like to throw them a few coins, here is the link.

    Also, not watching the debate but following it thru DKos, TNichols twitter feed (via bitter), and a couple other open tabs.  Sounds like a shitstorm that maybe Pence & Haley are occasionally standing out from?  Actually glad I am not watching.

  133. 133.

    Maxim

    @sab: I’m sorry. What a difficult conversation to have, to wish you could have done things differently. Did she tell you about it at the time?

  135. 135.

    catclub

    @kalakal: But will Georgia pay for his wall? Actually they might if it would keep Tuberville stuck in Fl

     

    Why do people keep saying Florida. Tuberville is a college football coach elected in Alabama.

  138. 138.

    MomSense

    Education not indoctrination.  DeSantis’ new slogan. Got rid of CRT and wants to make sure kids have a grounding in what it means to be an American.

    Vivek wants to eliminate the Dept of Education, end teachers unions and give the 80 billion to the parents – school choice.  Somehow he also wants to keep the men in the house because the nuclear family is the most important blah blah blah.

    Now they’re onto “protecting” women’s sports.

  139. 139.

    marcopolo

    @Omnes Omnibus: He is.  I live in MO, which is kind of hopeless for Ds statewide, but I’ve been a monthly donor to WIDems since the day Ben took over.  He really has worked wonders.  Just wish all the state parties had the resources (money, bodies, smarts) to be organizing 365 days/year.  It’s the only way forward in getting voters IDed, educated & mobilized in the midst of all the other distraction of day-to-day living.

  143. 143.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    half-assed watching debate twitter, which isn’t nearly as funny as mug shots twitter, and it just occurred to me I haven’t seen any mention of Christie. Has the big brawler not thrown a punch, or just not landed one?

  150. 150.

    marcopolo

    @Jeffro: George Conway just noted that this debate is a demolition derby amongst all the candidates on stage while Trump is going untouched. Totally accurate. Predicts Trump will hit 70% soon. I’d say it really is a VP audition except Trump is just as likely to choose a running mate from the wait staff of Mar-a-Lago as from any of these folks.

  152. 152.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Joe Biden retweets Nikki Haley calling out trump et al for adding $8T to the national debt. She’s gonna hate that more than the Republicans she was trying to tag

    Joe Biden @JoeBiden

    What she said.

  160. 160.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    @catclub: ​
     

    3 days ago — U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama but lives in Florida. Frank Cerabino column explores this kind of border invasion.

  162. 162.

    Rebel’s Dad

    @Anoniminous: I know that that’s a popular talking point on the left, but it’s not entirely correct. England had sheriffs and night watchmen long before there even were American colonies.

    No doubt that slave patrols did have an impact on our modern-day policing system, especially in the South. But blaming everything on slave patrols is as intellectually lazy as ACAB or the Cadillac-driving welfare queen.

  163. 163.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Alison Rose: ​
      WI Dems are killing it. Wikler is raising a shit ton of money off of the FOP convention. Labor unions and Milwaukee area Dems held a labor rights rally outside the Fiserv Forum. WI may be a closely contested state, but Milwaukee is deep blue.

  169. 169.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    @MomSense: ​
     

    Somehow he also wants to keep the men in the house because the nuclear family is the most important blah blah blah.

    I see he’s attacking the thrice married, philandering front runner

  170. 170.

    TS

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    sounds like Vivek is having a rough night

    I would hope so from the brief time I watched he was going back to fossil fuels, drowning government in the bath tub and generally doing everything to take MAGA to the extreme.

  172. 172.

    Suzanne

    Can I say that I am sooooo sick of the “taking the shower at the end of the day” trope?! Just take two showers. You’re not limited. IT’S A FREE COUNTRY, BE CLEAN.

  174. 174.

    TS

    MSNBC attacking Putin the dictator – they need to emphasise this is what the trump followers want for the USA

  175. 175.

    Lyrebird

    @MisterDancer: Thanks for putting such a broad perspective into clear terms.

    Lots to be discouraged about, though I have no doubt that the Biden Harris transition team made sure to have honest and loyal LEOs around POTUS and MVP.  Something that gives me hope here is the change I see since I was in school.  I am John Cole’s age just about.  In high school, you’d get nowhere fast pointing out violence as a tradition in white american society.  Totally shut down.  Could only call other people violent, that was totes okay.  Now there is more open discussion.

  176. 176.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    sounds like Vivek is having a rough night

    He deserves it because he’s been an arrogant prick ever since he started talking.

    I would have loved to swap out Vivek for Will Hurd so that there could have been one more anti-Trump Republican on the debate stage.

  177. 177.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Lucy Caldwell@lucymcaldwell

    DeSantis just did it again. Misleading to suggest he was a SEAL. He cannot claim this was accidental or a slip of the tongue when he’s just done it again. This is officially stolen valor territory. Despicable.

    as a Navy JAG, he was legal advisor to a SEAL unit in Iraq

    ETA: here’s the video. put out by the same PAC that wrote that memo last week.

    And Jill Wine-Banks brings the kill shot

    Jill Wine-Banks @JillWineBan 47m
    DeSantis misled with his reference to being with Navy Seals. He was a legal advisor to the Seals and assisted with urinalysis according to a check online.

  178. 178.

    Rebel’s Dad

    OT got my grades for this semester: a 99 in Adult Education in Global Contexts, and a 96 in Understanding the Adult Learner. Onward to Fall in two weeks!

  179. 179.

    Jeffro

    @marcopolo:George Conway just noted that this debate is a demolition derby amongst all the candidates on stage while Trump is going untouched. Totally accurate.

    Yeah, that’s about right.  He can duck into his role as chief heckler (this time, of the Republican Party) and look ‘presidential’ just by virtue of previously lucking into the office and also by not being on this stage.

    Predicts Trump will hit 70% soon.

    I’ll give him 60%.  Just splitting hairs, though.

    I’d say it really is a VP audition except Trump is just as likely to choose a running mate from the wait staff of Mar-a-Lago as from any of these folks.

    For at least 4-5 of these folks, there will be no welcoming back or inviting into the fold (Pence, Haley, Christie, Hutchinson, DeSantis), and Burgum adds nothing to a potential trumpov 2024 ticket.

    Scott?  Maybe.  Ramaswamy?  Maybe?  But I think trumpov will want a white nationalist woman on the ticket – the ‘hotter’, the better, in his mind – so the usual suspects will probably be considered.

    I’ll say again: someone show me a path for any one of these clowns to dethrone trumpov at this point.  And after that, show me how they unite the GOP for 2024.

  191. 191.

    kalakal

    Whatever else all of these fools are handing lots of ammunition to any Dem opponent in any election they stand in.

    They’re all abyssmal  and their inanities tonight are going to age like bean sprouts

  198. 198.

    piratedan

    @Jeffro: I would actually think Burgum would be perfect for Trump, he’s a complete nobody, will NOT take any attention away from Trump and comes from nowhere, has no power base and will most likely just do as he’s told.  He doesn’t need to “add” anything because Trump has never calculated politics that way.

    It’s like he’s graduated from Henchman University and needs to find a supervillian to take him on.

  200. 200.

    Captain C

    @Jeffro:

    Scott?  Maybe.  Ramaswamy?  Maybe?  But I think trumpov will want a white nationalist woman on the ticket – the ‘hotter’, the better, in his mind – so the usual suspects will probably be considered.

    The FSM doesn’t love us enough for it to be Boebert.  That would make the Sarah Palin choice look inspired.

  202. 202.

    Misterpuff

    I want a clip of the Pence/Vivek set-to with Beavis and Butthead’s voices dubbed in.

    Assholio FTW and Dense is such a Butthead.

  206. 206.

    Mel

    @Kathleen:  Steve needs to visit Eli’s Riverside for some Cincy BBQ, Ambar India in Clifton for Chicken Tikka, Holtman’s Donuts in OTR for the best raspberry filled donut ever, and Vera Cruz in Price Hill for their incredible fajitas before he leaves our fair city!

     

    @Steve in the ATL: Welcome to Cincy!

  207. 207.

    Rebel’s Dad

    @Mel: Thank you :)

    Yes, I’m working on my Ed.M. in Adult and Continuing Education. This was my first semester.

  209. 209.

    Mel

    @Rebel’s Dad: That’s really exciting! I taught high school, then taught and counseled in a college program designed to assist all sorts of adult learners/ non-trad students. I loved it. Working with adult students is a wonderful experience.

    From our chats in other threads, I can tell that you are a person with a lot of patience, strength, perseverance, and  compassion – the kind of person who  understands and cares about the kinds of obstacles that so many adult students are or have been up against.

    The profession (and the students) need good people like you!

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