All is quiet over at Fox News right now. Lou Dobbs is the sacrificial lamb and no word at this time about the fates of Maria Bartiromo or Jeannine Pirro, also named defendants in the $2.7 Billion defamation lawsuit that Smartmatic brought against Fox News and its hosts. And the buck may not stop there. RNC chair Ronna McDaniel is worried about the crazy talk that Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell brought to a recent RNC meeting there. New York Times:
And she expressed regret about letting Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former president’s personal lawyer and the former mayor of New York, and Sidney Powell, another member of Mr. Trump’s legal team who spread conspiracy theories, hold a news conference at the R.N.C. headquarters in Washington.
“When I saw some of the things Sidney was saying, without proof, I certainly was concerned it was happening in my building,” she said. “There are a whole host of issues we had to deal with — what is the liability of the R.N.C., if these allegations are made and unfounded?”
What is the liability, indeed? Dominion has signaled its legal action could expand significantly. So far it hasn’t landed on the RNC doorstep and maybe it won’t, but the entire issue of liability for hosting people who make utterly irresponsible and slanderous comments is coming into focus right now. Washington Post:
The question from there is how legally problematic the claims were. Defamation litigation is intensive and requires meeting certain thresholds. Those who made such claims themselves, for instance, could face more jeopardy than those who provided a forum for them to do so. Some claims involved citing others who made allegations or simply raised the theories as questions, while others more forcefully and definitively alleged nefarious activity. Dobbs arguably erred more toward actually embracing the theories than his fellow Fox hosts, for example.
What Giuliani said:
“They were founded as a company to fix elections. They have a terrible record and they are extremely hackable.” (Nov. 13, Fox Business)
“They [committed fraud] absolutely in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Republicans were shut out from enough of the county so they could accomplish what Smartmatic wanted to do. And what you — that pattern that they have there, we have evidence that that’s the same pattern Smartmatic used in other elections in which they were disqualified. In other words, this is their pattern of activity.” (Nov. 15, Fox News — Maria Bartiromo’s show)
“It’s Smartmatic, which is a company that was founded in 2005 in Venezuela for the specific purpose of fixing elections. That’s their expertise: how to fix elections.” (Nov. 18, Fox Business — Lou Dobbs’s show) […]
What Sidney Powell said:
“And President Trump won by not just hundreds of thousands of votes, but by millions of votes — that were shifted by this software that was designed expressly for that purpose. We have sworn witness testimony of why the software was designed. It was designed to rig elections. … It was exported internationally for profit by the people that are behind Smartmatic and Dominion. They did this on purpose. It was calculated. They have done it before.” (Nov. 15, Fox News — Bartiromo’s show)
“We’ve detected voting irregularities that are inexplicable and aligned with these problems in other states that think they have valid systems, but the people who bought the Dominion system for sure knew exactly what they were getting.” (Nov. 15, Fox News — Bartiromo’s show)
“We now have reams and reams of actual documents from Smartmatic and Dominion, including evidence that they planned and executed all of this. … We have evidence of how they flip the votes, how it was designed to flip the votes.” (Dec. 10, Fox Business — Dobbs’s show)
This is crazy talk and the only wonder is that the lawsuits weren’t filed long before they were. The RNC has reason to worry, not just about the lawsuits which they will probably escape being a part of, but the larger picture, which is that the Republican party is morphing into QNation right now. That’s a lot bigger existential issue than whether they get sued for hosting Powell and Giuliani talking trash to the base. Ben Sasse is right, the GOP needs to make a choice “between conservatism and madness.” That’s exactly where the line is drawn.
Who could have thought that lying about easily proven facts would have consequences?
No-one from the failing upward GQP.
So long insulated from consequences, that they’re not sure what it means.
The next few years will be a much-needed education for them.
One would think the last four years would have been an education for the GOP, but they have learned nothing.
Welcome to the real world, GQP. The rest of us suffer the consequences of our actions all the time. That’s called life on life’s terms, or “reality” what a concept.
maybe she should have been much louder in condemning the lies and the people who spread and use them. The GQP owns them now….
Maybe a certain someone should have thought about that BEFORE the putsch? Because it’s too late now.
Amazing, isn’t it, how fast things can fall apart … seems like just a couple of weeks ago, Trump was whining as usual, then boom, the sixth day came at the Capitol …
A lot of WTF moments, holy s***s, and OMG’s, and now, where are we headed?
The leadership in the GOP are still washing their underwear, mumbling BS and stumbling around with McCarthy, who had to travel to Mar-o-golf for some insane reason …
I find this worry from the RNC clan very amusing … first off. they have been entirely complicit with everything done and said by the official shitgibbon in the WH …
Then, DJT figured out how to pocket hordes of money set aside for future DJT campaigning … If nothing has changed lately, the oligarchs and big money people have thrown out the RNC/Trump as places to fund, and in the coffers of the RNC, the cabinets are bare of any cash … so sad. Trump has run with their funds …. 🙂
Maybe they can learn from Trump, claim loses against any pay outs … the legal documents that will be issued over the next few weeks will be mind boggling … 😉
I guess it’s all fun and games until the lawsuits start rolling in.
As with the Democratic claims about the 2004 Ohio elections— that Karl Rove was in a secret war room in Chattanooga being fed the results of the electronic machines and flipping enough votes to hand the state — and election — to George Bush, the basic facts reveal the impossibility of what they claim. Smartmatic products were in use in limited areas last fall — and their products weren’t being used in any of the swing states. (In 2004, there were almost no electronic machines being used in Ohio – they weren’t rolled out widely until 2006)
Odd that I heard/read a different explanation about the Ohio tabulation. I still think about it and it would be nice to have that finally explained. What I remember hearing had nothing to do with Rove in a bunker nor anything to do with electronic voting machines. It had to do with the tabulation being transferred to another state which could have been Tennessee ( So long ago) and that Kerry was ahead in the tabulated votes. Then the power somewhere in the chain was disrupted and that, when the tabulation transfer continued, Bush was ahead instead. That is the story I remember – the one that has stuck in my memory from back then.
Is there a reason that Fucker Carlson and Yawn Hannity weren’t included in the defamation suit? Or were they just a little more clever and managed to not step in it quite like the others? I NEVER watch faux snooze except when someone on MSNBC insists on running video from it. Wish they’d quit doing that.
I’m just relieved they are now facing the consequences! For years everyone was so terrified to stand up to them.
Gaslighting can be so painful!