Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson talks with Rachel Maddow about how Donald Trump's Big Lie has led to some elections officials being targeted with threats, and the launch of the Election Official Legal Defense Network to offer free legal advice or assistance to election workers.
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i thought it was a crime to threaten someones life and to harness them on the phone.
Not for white people
@Sin Sincere oh bs must be hard to play victim everyday of your life.
It’s not a crime when you’re a DemonRat or a leftist.
@joy Really? What exactly are those laws? Or did Maddow tell that fallacy?
@Nanc Mam there are laws in each state dealing with a wide range of harassment law, be it telecommunications, workplace, domestic or civil liberties. they are considered criminal acts, misdemeanor or felony
One of the things that I felt sure would break down when the “law and order” president took over in 2017 was law and order. What I felt is now being lived by our country.
@CL : Which equals the same thing
Yup. “Law and order” usually means SELECTIVE law and order. He is definitely an example of that.
@UkeCan1 I’d like to agree with you, but the Jan6 insurrectionists tend to skew to middle and even upper middle class despite media focus on “uneducated looking” types. Besides, the “classy pillar of the community” types still support a lot of the core values of the insurrectionists, even if they hate “protester’s” methods.
@filrabat 1 They had money to travel to DC and stay in that guy’s branded overpriced hotel. I don’t see much evidence of class or community standing.
@UkeCan1 Their jobs certainly don’t suggest low or even blue-collar “class or community standing”, From DFW alone, there were:
– a *Luxury* airline pilot (flew celebs, prominent world leaders around) (I think, but not sure, named Larry Brock)
– a real estate agent in a well-to-do suburb (Jenna Ryan)
-associate general counsel (lawyer) for a large insurance agency (Goosehead Ins.), Paul Davis.
Also, from Chicago, The CEO of the data analytics firm Cogensia (Bradley Rukstales).
“I have a chapter in the book on malignant narcissism as a characteristic of destructive cult leaders. These are people who have a deep need for grandiosity, to be the center of attention, who need to control others, and who lack empathy and lie without hesitation. These are psychological traits perfectly attuned to manipulation and projection.
But the malignant part is about sociopathic tendencies. Almost every cult leader thinks he’s above the law, which is why he’s allowed to persecute and harass or harm anyone he wants. When someone really believes this, they can rationalize all kinds of destructive behavior.”
–Steven Hassan, The Cult of Trump
Narcissistic cult leaders like Trump thrive on chaos. They’ll create crisis situations. When they walk in the room, you never know if they’re going to be good and kind-hearted or be mean and call someone out or create some kind of dangerous situation.
A cult leader is also a master of manipulating information, so that his followers will only trust details that come from him. This is what Trump accomplishes every time he cries “fake news” or discredits a reporter as “terrible” or “nasty.” He knows that Americans have access to all sorts of information, so he has to make his followers distrust other sources.
A cult environment like “Q” and Trumpism discourages critical thinking, making it hard to voice doubts, when everyone around you is displaying dogmatic faith and obedience to their leader. A process of indoctrination is in use that can be seen as coercive persuasion, or thought reform, commonly called “brainwashing”. The resulting internal conflict, known as cognitive dissonance, keeps them trapped, as each compromise makes it more painful to admit that you’ve been deceived..
Steven Hassan, is an expert in cults and an ex-Moonie cult member (as in the Unification Church, founded by a Korean businessman, Sun Myung Moon), published “The Cult of Trump” last spring. When polled, Trump cultists come across as having abandoned their commitment to libertarianism, family values or simple logic in favor of Trump worship. They’re lost to paranoia and farcical talking points, just the way Hassan was lost to Sun Myung Moon..
Hassan remembers, during his Moonie days, shouting, “I don’t care if Moon is like Adolf-H. I’ve chosen to follow him, and I’ll follow him to the end.” Hassan finally broke free, and became an expert on cults and how to leave them. He has spent his career proving it’s possible.
When they are finally confronted with truth and reality, many cults and their leaders — as we remember from the likes of Jim Jones, David Koresh and the Branch Davidians — come to a catastrophic end..
You certainly are a sensitive person. Terribly limp wrists I’d say….
Sounds EXACTLY like Biden, Harris, Pelosi, Schumer, AND EVERY other radical socialist power hungry democrat!!
@Janitor Queen BIDEN/HARRIS APPROVAL RATING PLUMMETS TO ONLY 39%!!!!!
@Janitor Queen You’re wishing death, or an end to their political careers?
@Just Say’n No but I can only imagine & somewhat afraid to ask!
Threatening ANY election officials should be felony nation wide.
@Dave Moss You should try to get a grip on reality before just spewing nonsense. It makes your political opinions look bad.
@Dave Moss how can Biden engage in insurrection without being indicted? Well the courts have basically given the president authority to commit insurrection pursuant to executive branch’s discretion, a moronic extension of prosecutorial discretion. Its completely unconstitutional and one of many loopholes to the constitution that the courts have created and a good reason why the US needs to collapse and be reformed
@Dave Moss at this point if youre defending the US youre defending nothing but a nation with no constitution that hides its human rights abuses and is poised to get a bunch of extremists attacks. Thats why the defense equipment engineer contractors are all saboteurs nowadays.
@Eric Carteros l haven’t given any political opinion. There is nothing political about decerning truth from lies. And nothing political about condeming cowardly threats to people for doing their job honestly.
@Dave Moss why are you assuming they did their job honestly? There isnt any evidence for that, there is only political bias that would favor such conclusion and another political bias which would favor concluding dishonest my and corruption. Youve already revealed your aptitude
Make it a federal crime to threaten a poll worker or an elected official punishable by jail time
@Borvo Donald was right he loves the poorly uneducated and he said that, The Base is DONALD GOD, The poorly uneducated Fool’s.
There already is. The Justice Department is just not prosecuting it.
@kkarx Proof?
Physical harmful threats , yes , but legal threats for them not doing their job . No.
@Mary Lynne gain of function-
” study, or research that improves the ability of a pathogen to cause disease “
And with surprise we learn that not one of those person how did threaten those women or men did not even get a visit of the “great” FBI or even local police to ask questions?! And do not even try to say they are all unknow?! But if you are of the right right side of the political spectrum you are less enoyed by police or justice! Why? Justice like nazis better than others?!
No matter what side you are on. No one should be threatening anyones family. Anyone who leaves a threatening message should be charged
Keep believing!
It’s fake news . It’s to give credibility to them lawyering up . They’re going to need it. Lol.
Awesome!!! Good News is so very welcome!! Thank You upstanding American Lawyers and Officials putting together a tremendous effort to defend Democracy 🇺🇸🇺🇸
The worst nightmare scenario for a bully is when their intended victims are willing to fight back. Exposure in court with heavy fines and even jail time for the habitual offender will discourage them.
We would luv to able one day to travel throughout the school’s of middle class america just to share our story. Thanks to this sloopy neotrumpers and their racist hate. Nope f___ this hate groups. Real Thanks to all this real people out there that understand.
@tecums3h Go ahead and fact check here there if you got the patience ☺️.
I agree
@Arturo Loret de Mola if you live in oregon then you don’t really live in the US. your state govt is so far gone it’s almost laughable.
@tecums3h 👏🏼👍🏼
Took 40 minutes for the police to get to her house. They were definitely in on it.
Took an hour and 40 minutes if you listen closely.
Yes. The Republican party, the police, the military have been infiltrated.
One bad apple spoils the bunch.
I know, from experience, that if you take the moldy item out of the group you can keep the rest good. It’s a good metaphor when you say the entire quote.
@Laura Lafauve Only if you take them out early, before they spoil the bunch. Clearly that didn’t happen.
@UkeCan1 yes. People just don’t know enough about science these days! Otherwise they would know that when they say ” one bad apple” they are inferring that there’s a whole bunch more rotten fruit in there!
Texas should pass a law allowing anyone to sue Trump for instigating this violence. $10,000 bounty.
@hmmcinerney dummy, if we are leaving what do you think would happen to those prisoners?? They wouldn’t stay…. derrrrrrrrrr
There is not a single case of threats against election officials after the Bush Brothers stole the 2000 election. Not a single case. But Trump just has to claim his Big Lie, and thousands of his supporters go nuts.
@Bud Fudlacker evangelical Christians~ American taliban
@T More like WOKE DEMENTIA JOE TALIBAN MEMBERS!
@Gordon Strong To bad you are not smart enough to debate me huh boy!!!!
All this violence and threatening violence because the self confessed chosen one couldn’t accept he’d been unchosen.
No, it’s because the other side laughed off any suggestion of an investigation. The federal government spent two years investigating Russian collusion. Two. Years. There was no real evidence of Russian collusion, but they investigated it anyway. Pelosi could have prevented 1/6 at any time by saying a full and independent investigation into 2020 election fraud would be done. She didn’t. She liked the outcome of the election, so she picked her side over her country. That’s what I plan to do too. My side needs to win. Your side needs to lose.
@boredom2go Your wrong on both counts. There was an investigation that said there was collusion by Russia, and Trump got William Bar to say publicly that the report said otherwise, but if you read it it does say that. And as far as Pelosi not doing an investigation there were several recounts in all the states that were contested. Also more than 60 lawsuits that were lost by Trump contesting the election. The election board did an investigation and said it was the cleanest election in U.S. history!! The man in charge of that board was promptly fired by Trump for doing his job, Trump just didn’t like the (outcome) the truth. I guess you don’t either, but I didn’t like when Trump won like many others we understood the election result was fair according to the electorate.
@boredom2go you are so wrong. Keep your silly opinions to yourself please.
@boredom2go part of the problem is the your side my side argument. Trump has divided us. We all worked together before Trump. This madness has gotta stop. Put aside the anger in your heart and use your head. We are one nation.
@Eilene Coulter I don’t care about your useless sentiments. Anger is the only thing this “country” has left. I am not your countryman. We did not work together under Obama. We did not work together under Bush. We are definitely not working together under President Potato.
They should be going after Trump for lying to them to others and the pillow guy not them..🙄
Why do these officials need lawyers ?!
The people who should be lawyering up should be those who are threatening them. By allowing these thugs to threaten and terrorize like it’s their “free speech ” is outrageous. There should be no margin here.
@Borvo – Thank you for bringing in some real facts, as opposed to Frantic Fanatic Fraudit bloggers and the Big Lie believers.
@Borvo is what I said in the first place, the canvas is part of the audit, the rest is coming, Of course cnn isn’t going to cover it. We can agree to disagree because to me you sir are the one living in alternate universe. You probably support this moronic regime and for that I feel sorry for you. Have a blessed day
The greatest robbery in history. in this election there are thousands of witnesses who have seen the robbery in live, thousands hours of video. And yet they cannot be prosecuted.
The big difference between democracy and dictatorship is fair and safe elections.
They should at least be getting secret service protection, as well as family members.
@Tesfay Kiros – It’s a good thing, then, that the 2020 Presidential elections have been – according to the DOJ, the FBI, the NSA and the head of the Electoral Commission (as well as countless poll workers and state election officials) have been certified as *”the most closely-watched, fair and impartial election in recorded history.”* There are millions of witnesses who have seen the election process in live; there are thousands hours of video showing complete transparency. Over 60 cases and lawsuits were brought before over 60 different judges in a multitude of state and district courts – *including the Supreme Court* – and all but one were dismissed as “having no standing”, “having no merit” or (the most damning) *”having no evidence”*.
So where’s the “evidence” of the so-called “massive voter fraud”?? Where?? Rudy had nothing. He was disbarred for lying. Sidney Powell had nothing – her defense against a 1.3 Billion dollar lawsuit for defamation was a pathetic “Nobody responsible would believe anything I said.” Pillow Boy has nothing, and now he’s as much of a joke as the Arizona Fraudit by the Cyber Turtles guy and his merry band of Q-Anal enthusiasts.
“The big difference between democracy and dictatorship is fair and safe elections.” I totally agree. It’s just a shame that 21% of the population is *too emotionally immature* to accept that their *twice-Impeached Spray-Tanned Traitor* just wasn’t – and isn’t – even half as popular as they want to believe.
A gang is where a coward goes to hide.
–Mickey Mantle
@Nelson Muntz The key word is *gang* (connotes a group of people setting out to disrupt a reasonable quality of life for others). BLM and Antifa seek to *affirm* quality of life for historically oppressed. So they don’t qualify as a gang. The Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, 3%ers are just trying to keep outmoded, disproven old values claiming “Only “normal, decent, self-respecting, strong-backboned Westerners-regardless-of-race don’t deserve disrespect (note well the difference from “do deserve respect”)…and even that assumes some will concede that LGBT, non-traditional women and “unmanly men”, non-Christians, etc. sometimes deserve respect – an unreliable assumption at best.
@filrabat 1 well said Filrabat !!!
@Nelson Muntz MAGA NEO NAZIS
And gang members never roll alone, just ask a Mongol or Hells Angel. Cowards.
@Hobyo MAGA — *MEHR*kuns Always Going Apeshit.
The other day, I binge watched the Senators speak after they regrouped at 8:30 pm on Jan 6, to continue counting the votes. They begged, beseeched, that the GOP just tell their constituents the TRUTH. Well, despite their beautiful and erudite words, here we are. Why? Because Trump won’t go away.
If I call a friend and threaten them, I would be charged with making Terroristic threats and Go str8 to jail without passing Go….Privileged is REAL🤗
@gary avona overboard? 😆. What’s more overboard than Death? Crazies on each side killing each other, but it’s mostly Left people being the perpetrator. Vets are on BOTH sides of this coin. That Teacher on Project Veritas belonged to an organized branch of Aunt Tifa. The Right is playing with kiddie gloves… which should come off. I’ma Libertarian and call BS on both sides, but the Left is deranged to put it lightly. The “Insurrection” people were the crazies on the Right, but you can see how much damage the Left did in the Pacific Northwest.
@Jow Bloe you are delusional
@Roger Maize check the Facts on threatening a President. Why would it be a certain Law on that, if there’s already a Law for that? 🤔
@Roger Maize has to be “credible” threats
@Max Max No Russian 😉
As part of the voting rights bills congress should make threatening an election official a federal felony with minimum 5 years
“When the police do nothing, Democracy ends”.
— myself, just now
Yup. Like when police didn’t arrest antifa thugs who set buildings on fire.
The election officials not only need law enforcement to step up and do their jobs, they need the district attorneys in those districts, to prosecute the LE officials that have failed to protect and go after people trying to subvert our election system.
Yeah, protect againt election fraud! ID!