Republicans Nervous about Funding Trump's Cop-Beaters
Senate Republicans are nervous about the appearance of giving nearly $2 billion in taxpayer dollars to Trump terrorists who attacked police on January 6th.
As Donald Trump continues aggressively weeding out any independent thinkers in his own party, Senate Republicans are nervous about the appearance of giving nearly $2 billion in taxpayer dollars to Trump terrorists who attacked police on January 6th.
They feel it might not be a good look.
“Imagine that — a fund that is set up to compensate people who assaulted Capitol Police officers,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said, according to Punchbowl news. “How absurd does that sound coming out of my mouth?”
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“Trump is trying to commandeer nearly $1.8 billion in taxpayer funds to bankroll a slush fund for January 6 cop-beaters and aggrieved MAGA foot soldiers,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, said in a statement objecting to the unconstitutional use of federal funds, adding “only Congress has the power to appropriate federal dollars, and we didn’t appropriate a cent for the J6 millionaire trust fund.”
Indeed, one of Trump’s pardoned J6 terrorists, Jake Lang, who was charged with assaulting police with a baseball bat during the riot, was arrested in March of this year “for allegedly threatening a police officer who had also previously protected the Capitol.”
NPR added some more color to Trump’s astonishingly corrupt pardons and now a slush fund that the J6ers think is coming to them as they feel was promised, noting yet another Trump-pardoned J6er who was also arrested in March at the time of the article, this time for charges of assault and battery. They say he was already on probation during the deadly Capitol insurrection, and wearing a court-mandated GPS monitor for a prior conviction.
His latest arrest took place after videos emerged that appeared to show him touching women's hair while riding the D.C. Metro. Multiple women have accused Betancur of stalking them and making harassing comments online.
Republicans are nervous about appearing to give your tax dollars to people like this.
The slush fund is “politically toxic” in a year defined by “affordability issues and high costs,” Punchbowl asserted this morning:
But it’s unclear how Republicans plan to impose eligibility restrictions on the “weaponization” fund. They’re especially concerned about potential taxpayer-funded payouts to Jan. 6 rioters convicted of violence against cops, as well as the overall political optics of the fund. This was a big discussion point at the Republicans’ lunch meeting on Wednesday.
But of course, most of the Republicans speaking up are those who aren’t seeking reelection or those who lost their primaries to MAGA cult members, though Punchbowl reports that Republican leaders feel the same way, “GOP leaders’ decisions on both the ballroom and weaponization fund make clear that they feel the same way.”
While Senate Republicans are eying using the reconciliation bill to exert some control over Trump’s nearly $1.8 billion slush fund that looks set to go to his violent criminals, some House Republicans are also trying to kill it.
