#eric schmitt

Torri Lonergan at MMFA:

Right-wing media figures have spent years lobbing racist insults at judges who are naturalized U.S. citizens or people of color — mocking their names, questioning their loyalties, and falsely identifying American-born judges as immigrants. Some have gone so far as to demand that immigrants and Muslim Americans be barred from serving as judges, while others have pushed for naturalized and even some American-born judges to be stripped of their citizenship and deported. Right-wing media’s yearslong campaign has now gained support from some congressional Republicans, who recently introduced both a bill and a constitutional amendment that would require all American judges “to be natural-born citizens.”

Jennifer Bendery at HuffPost:

WASHINGTON — Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) complained Thursday that Democrats keep bringing up the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection in hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where President Donald Trump’s nominees routinely, and alarmingly, refuse to answer questions about the violence of that day and about who won the 2020 election. Schmitt, a close ally of Trump, griped about having to keep talking about the violence of Jan. 6 in the middle of National Police Week, a time when lawmakers in both parties play up their support for law enforcement officers and honor those who have died in the line of duty.

A number of police officers died by suicide after the events of Jan. 6, when Trump incited a mob of his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol and brutally beat dozens of law enforcement officers in an attempt to stop lawmakers from certifying Joe Biden as president. Schmitt’s comments came during a Thursday hearing where senators were voting on a batch of the president’s nominees. He brought up that Feb. 2 is the birthday of Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), a committee member, and pointed out that the day is also Groundhog Day. “I think that we ought to change the date of Groundhog Day to January 6, because every time I walk into this committee hearing – it’s everything,” said the Missouri Republican. “Everything stops and starts with January 6.”

[...] It’s true that Democrats routinely ask the president’s nominees about Jan. 6, and their reason is entirely relevant to the business before this panel: All of Trump’s picks for lifetime federal judgeships and U.S. attorney posts have to clear this committee before being confirmed by the Senate, and all have been refusing to affirm basic facts about Trump fueling the violence of Jan. 6 and about his loss to Biden in the 2020 election. Apparently afraid of angering Trump and having their nominations withdrawn, his nominees have given nonsensical reasons for not being able to talk about either subject, or have given repeated responses that avoid answering the actual question — all of which raises red flags about where their loyalties lie, with Trump or with the Constitution.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) complained Thursday that Democrats keep bringing up the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection in hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where President Donald Trump’s nominees routinely, and alarmingly, refuse to answer questions about the violence of that day and about who won the 2020 election.

Schmitt, a close ally of Trump, griped about having to keep talking about the violence of Jan. 6 in the middle of National Police Week, a time when lawmakers in both parties play up their support for law enforcement officers and honor those who have died in the line of duty.

A number of police officers died by suicide after the events of Jan. 6, when Trump incited a mob of his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol and brutally beat dozens of law enforcement officers in an attempt to stop lawmakers from certifying Joe Biden as president.

Schmitt’s comments came during a Thursday hearing where senators were voting on a batch of the president’s nominees. He brought up that Feb. 2 is the birthday of Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), a committee member, and pointed out that the day is also Groundhog Day.

Christopher Wiggins at The Advocate:

Senate Republicans have unveiled a comprehensive amendment package to the SAVE America Act that combines new federal voting restrictions with policies targeting transgender people. It comes after President Donald Trump has insisted that the provisions be added and the bill passed. Offered as a substitute amendment, the proposal, obtained by Punchbowl News on Tuesday evening, reorganizes the legislation into three sections: elections, sports, and what it calls protections for children. The election provisions would require Americans to present documentary proof of U.S. citizenship in order to register to vote in federal elections, a change to current law. Voting by noncitizens is already illegal under federal law, and documented cases are rare. The proposal would also require photo identification to vote and limit mail voting, requiring most ballots to be cast in person and restricting absentee voting to specific circumstances such as illness, disability, or verified travel.

The amendment would also direct states to compare voter rolls with federal immigration databases and remove people identified as noncitizens, while requiring federal agencies to share data to support those checks. Other sections of the package include unrelated culture war issues that focus on transgender people. One provision would bar transgender women and girls from participating in school sports aligned with their gender identity, stating that it would be a violation of federal law to allow “a person whose sex is male to participate in an athletic program or activity that is designated for women or girls,” and defining sex “based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”

Another section would create federal criminal penalties for gender-affirming care, or what the bill falsely describes as “genital and bodily mutilation of a minor” and “chemical castration of a minor.”

[...] The amendment comes as Senate Republicans move forward with debate on the SAVE Act despite lacking the votes needed to pass it. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has acknowledged the bill is unlikely to reach the 60 votes required to overcome a filibuster, but has continued with floor consideration. [...] The legislation faces an uncertain path in the Senate. The House already passed a version of the bill that did not include the anti-trans provisions, and it would have to return to the House if the Senate passes it before Trump could sign the legislation into law. He has vowed not to sign any other bills into law until the measure receives a vote and passes.

The Senate GOP’s SAVE America Act is harmful and anti-American, and it’s not only because of voter suppression provisions but also the additions of red meat culture war items banning trans minors from gender-affirming care and transgender women in women’s sports... all to appease Donald Trump.

See Also:

Jess Piper at The View From Rural Missouri:

I am not an investigative journalist. I am a storyteller, but the story I am about to tell you has me feeling a little like Erin Brockovich. It keeps getting bigger. I keep taking notes. I keep hearing from others who are experiencing the same thing. Something stinks in Missouri, and the stench is spreading fast — like a feed lot in July. Republican Congressional Representatives are up to something nasty, and I think it is coordinated. On January 30th, a few local Kansas City groups decided to go to one of our Congressman’s regional offices. He has five offices, and his constituents pay the rent for each. My Congressman is Sam Graves. He has been in office for 24 years. He wins by a landslide every two years. He hasn’t held a town hall since 2012, and last fall, when I asked him to his face when he would hold a town hall, he told me, “I don’t do those.” Many folks in his district have grievances with his policies and his fealty to the regime, so several of us went to his Kansas City office to voice our concerns to his staffers. The event was publicized and drew over 200 people.

When I arrived at the building that houses Sam’s office, I noticed a “No Trespassing” sign. I thought it was odd. The building is large, but it houses constituent offices for both Sam Graves and Senator Eric Schmitt.

As I pulled into the parking lot, I found the visitor’s parking space and parked. As I opened my back door to grab my protest sign, a woman in an unmarked police car told me I couldn’t park in the visitor’s lot, while a man in the passenger seat of the car filmed me with his phone. I told her to take it up with someone else. I had every right to park in that spot. She told me the building’s owner didn’t want us there. I told her I parked in the correct spot to speak with my Congressman in the office I paid for. She told me to move my car, or I would be towed, because I was on private property. I told her to do whatever she needed to do, but they’d have to tow dozens of vehicles. I grabbed my sign and walked toward the crowd gathering on the sidewalk.

I walked to the building to find Sam’s constituent office, and a man inside the building opened the door for me. I smiled at his courtesy, and I was about to pass through the open door when he stepped in front of me. I looked up at his quick movement, and he asked me if he could help me.

I told him I was going in to speak to my Congressman’s staff. He told me there were no appointments that day. I stated I didn’t need an appointment…I had a sticky note to deliver. He said I couldn’t come in, and he would deliver anything I had to Sam’s staff. And that was it. I was met by a guard at my Congressman’s door and not allowed in the building. I was denied my First Amendment right to petition my government for a redress of grievances. I thought this was where the story would end, but what happened to me and others in Kansas City that day is happening all over the state. Missouri constituents are being met with hostility and locked doors and threats of citations and even arrest for showing up at our own Representative’s offices.

[...] The more stories I researched, the more common I found this behavior. Constituents are being forcefully removed from Congressional offices.

A friend told me a man from Springfield was arrested for protesting Senator Eric Schmitt’s Springfield office late last year. I started digging. In a Facebook post from 2025, Jeffrey Tenney stated he was arrested, and his car was towed from the private property where Schmitt leases his Springfield constituent office. Tenney said the property owner called the police after he stood outside of Schmitt’s office door with a sign. Are you sensing a pattern? Mr. Tenney was given a year of probation for violating the Springfield code regarding the right-of-way in crosswalks.

[...] Dominique Moore and April Hicks, both Springfield organizers, helped arrange the event. They stated it was not organized as a protest, but as a way for constituents to voice their concerns. Organizers intended to deliver letters with other citizens, but a staffer for Congressman Burlison met them at the door and closed it behind them. The staffer offered to take their names and then stepped back into the office and locked the door.

[...] It is reprehensible that our Representatives are being shielded by private property laws. These Reps can shirk their duties to their constituents by using tax dollars to pay for offices we can’t access. They can evade their constituents. They can have us cited or even arrested. It’s purposeful. Remember when my Congressman told me he doesn’t do town halls? He meant it. He is adamant. No contact with constituents and no questions answered and no relief delivered. He is a man beholden to his donors, not his voters.

And this applies to Ann Wagner and Eric Schmitt and Eric Burlison. They don’t care. Petitioning our government is our First Amendment right. A right that exists even under this regime. Even under a Missouri GOP supermajority.

Someday, I hope the rest of Missouri will wake up to this fact. These Representatives don’t care about you. Stop voting for them.

According to five U.S. officials, who spoke separately and on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter that is under investigation, Mr. Hegseth, ahead of the Sept. 2 attack, ordered a strike that would kill the people on the boat and destroy the vessel and its purported cargo of drugs. But, each official said, Mr. Hegseth’s directive did not specifically address what should happen if a first missile turned out not to fully accomplish all of those things. And, the officials said, his order was not a response to surveillance footage showing that at least two people on the boat survived the first blast. Admiral Bradley ordered the initial missile strike and then several follow-up strikes that killed the initial survivors and sank the disabled boat. As that operation unfolded, they said, Mr. Hegseth did not give any further orders to him. The officials clarified the sequence of events amid the political and legal uproar that has followed a report in The Washington Post last week. It said that Admiral Bradley ordered the second strike to fulfill a directive by Mr. Hegseth to kill everyone. The reaction has included questions about whether Mr. Hegseth specifically ordered an execution of shipwrecked sailors in violation of the laws of war.

…

The two officials questioned whether the surviving people were Admiral Bradley’s intended target in the second strike, as opposed to the purported drugs and the disabled vessel. They argued that the purported cargo remained a threat and a lawful military target because another cartel-associated boat might have come to retrieve it.

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Geoffrey Corn, who was the Army’s senior adviser for law-of-war issues, said he believed the entire attack was illegal, because he rejects the administration’s argument that the situation can be legitimately treated as an armed conflict.

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HOW TF DID YOU GET MY CONTACT INFORMATION? STOP FUCKING CONTACTING ME, YOU TOADS.