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Takeaways from the fourth day of the January 6 hearings –
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PHOENIX (AP) – Calls from top advisers to former President Donald Trump to help overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss were an unsupported, unwise and “juvenile” effort that attacked a bedrock principal of American democracy, Arizona’s House speaker said Monday.
Republican Speaker Rusty Bowers is among a series of state election officials set to testify Tuesday before the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection where Trump backers tried to stop the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory.
Bowers spoke to The Associated Press after he arrived in Washington on Monday afternoon. He will be questioned about a phone call he got from Trump and attorney Rudy Giuliani in the weeks after the November 2020 election where Giuliani floated a proposal to replace Arizona’s Biden electors by having the state’s Legislature instead choose those committed to voting for Trump.
Bowers refused, saying the scheme was illegal and unconstitutional. In an interview last year, he said he told the president he would not break the law to help him gain the presidency.
He revealed a second call from Trump on Monday, saying the president phoned again on Dec. 4, 2020, but did not pressure him. He said Trump mainly made small talk, asking about his family and the upcoming holidays.
Related Content & Reviews
Arizona Republican calls push to overturn 2020 ‘juvenile’
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Takeaways from the fourth day of the January 6 hearings –
The latest hearing before the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection revealed new details Tuesday about how former President Donald Trump pressured state officials to help him overturn the 2020 presidential election.
The panel featured testimony from three Republican officials who were all on the receiving end of Trump’s outreach after the election: Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, his deputy Gabe Sterling and Arizona House of Representatives Speaker Rusty Bowers.
Like previous hearings, these officials testified about their unwillingness to participate in legally dubious schemes that would undermine the election, including efforts to subvert the Electoral College with fake pro-Trump electors.
Here are key takeaways from Tuesday’s hearing:
Committee reveals new details how congressional Republicans helped Trump’s efforts to overturn election–
Tuesday’s hearing featured new details about two congressional Republicans played a role in Trump’s sprawling efforts to try to overturn his 2020 election loss.
The second occurred several hours later, minutes before then-Vice President Mike Pence gaveled in the joint session of Congress to certify the electoral votes. According to text messages obtained by the committee, an aide to GOP Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin asked an aide to Pence how Johnson could hand-deliver him the fake slates of Trump electors from Michigan and Wisconsin, which had not been sent to the National Archives. Pence’s aide responded that Johnson should “not give that to him.”
Takeaways from fourth day of Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot hearings
Committee reveals new details how congressional Republicans helped Trump’s efforts to overturn election
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Israeli government collapses
By JEAN-CLAUDE BENOIT and PYRAM LIGIERE
Israeli government collapses sparking fresh
The Israeli government has collapsed, sparking fresh elections and a possible return to power for Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israeli PM Naftali Bennett has announced the government would submit a bill to dissolve the Knesset. Pic: AP
After weeks of speculation, the current Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced the government would submit a bill to dissolve the Knesset next week, thereby ending Israel’s 36th government, assuming it passes.
Mr Bennett’s coalition partner, the current foreign minister Yair Lapid, will assume the role of acting prime minister for a minimum of 90 days.
Foreign minister Yair Lapid will assume the role of acting prime minister. Pic: AP
Factoring in religious holidays, elections are likely to be held sometime in October, the fifth in three years. The current coalition, barely a year old, had been teetering for weeks after it lost its Knesset majority following defections.
It took power in June 2021, bringing an end to Mr Netanyahu’s 12 years in power. It had gradually been losing authority and a vote of no confidence, tabled by opposition parties, was expected this week, prompting Mr Bennett and Mr Lapid to jump before they were pushed. Mr Lapid, as acting PM, will now welcome US President Joe Biden to Israel when he visits next month.
JERUSALEM — sparking fresh elections and raising possibility of Benjamin Netanyahu returning to power
Mr Netanyahu, who has twice been Israeli prime minister, has recently been embroiled in a court case defending allegations of corruption but remains a powerful figure in Israel in politics.
Although Israel remains bitterly split politically, Mr Netanyahu is still popular amongst a significant section of the population, but he has struggled in the past elections to form decisive coalitions.
He has spent much of his year in opposition actively undermining the coalition government and encouraging opposition parties to vote against government bills, culminating in the defeat of a bill earlier in the month, restoring certain rights to Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
Voting against the renewal of that legislation went against Mr Netanyahu’s politics and was seen to be brazenly opportunist – it also alienated some of his support.
However, the Bibi-factor will almost certainly dominate the election campaign, and what he says and does will determine much of the course of the coming months as Israel prepares to go to the polls again.
Mexico president to bypass congress to keep army in streets.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president has begun exploring plans to sidestep congress to hand formal control of the National Guard to the army, a move that could extend the military’s control over policing in a country with high levels of violence.
That has raised concerns because President Andrés Manuel López Obrador won approval for creating the force in 2019 by pledging in the constitution that it would be under nominal civilian control and that the army would be off the streets by 2024.
Still, López Obrador wants to keep soldiers involved in policing, and remove civilian control over the National Guard, whose officers and commanders are mostly soldiers, with military training and pay grades.
“A constitutional reform would be ideal, but we have to look for ways, because they (the opposition) instead of helping us, are blocking us, there is an intent to prevent us from doing anything,” López Obrador said.
Mexico’s army has been deeply involved in policing since the start of the 2006 drug war. But its presence was always understood as temporary, a stop-gap until Mexico could build trustworthy police forces.
López Obrador appears to have abandoned that plan, instead making the military and quasi-military force like the National Guard the main solution. “Their mandate has to be prolonged,” he said.
The force has grown to 115,000, but almost 80% of its personnel were drawn from the ranks of the military.
Tension between Nicaragua and the Catholic Church
Earlier this month Nicaragua shuttered seven radio stations belonging to the Catholic Church and launched an investigation into the bishop of Matagalpa, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, accusing him of inciting violent actors “to carry out acts of hate against the population.”
This is not the first time President Daniel Ortega has moved aggressively to silence critics of his administration. In 2018 the government raided the headquarters of the newspaper Confidencial, led by journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro, who is considered one of the most prominent critics of Ortega. Then, throughout 2021, authorities arrested seven potential presidential candidates for that year’s November elections. Here’s a look at the fraught relationship between the church and the government amid a political standoff that’s now in its fifth year, with no end in sight.
WHO IS DANIEL ORTEGA?
Ortega, 76, is a former guerrilla with the leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front who helped overthrow dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979 and first served as president from 1985 until he left office in 1990 after being voted out.
Under Ortega, Nicaragua has cultivated strong ties to allies Cuba and Venezuela, two staunch foes of the U.S. government.
WHAT ROLE HAS THE CHURCH PLAYED?
Nicaragua is predominantly Catholic, and the church was close to the Somozas from the 1930s until the 1970s, when it distanced itself from politics after many abuses were attributed to the dictatorship. The church initially supported the Sandinistas after Somoza’s ouster, but that relationship frayed over time due to ideological differences. Under Ortega, Catholic leaders have often backed the country’s conservative elite.
When the protests first erupted, Ortega asked the church to serve as mediator in peace talks, though they ultimately failed.
Ortega has responded by accusing some bishops of being part of a plot to overthrow him and calling them “terrorists.”
The church radio stations were shuttered by the government Aug. 1, and police investigating Álvarez, the Matagalpa bishop, accused him of “organizing violent groups.”
Álvarez has called for profound electoral reform to “effectively achieve the democratization of the country” and also demanded the release of some 190 people he considers political prisoners. Last month he staged a fast in protest of what he called persecution against him
WHAT ABOUT THE LATEST CHURCH-STATE CONFLICT?
The church radio stations were shuttered by the government Aug. 1, and police investigating Álvarez, the Matagalpa bishop, accused him of “organizing violent groups.”
The Archdiocese of Managua has expressed support for Álvarez. The conference of Latin American Catholic bishops decried what it called a “siege” of priests and bishops, the expulsion of members of religious communities and “constant harassment” targeting the Nicaraguan people and church.