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A28 u.s. news
Diahuebs 28 Juli 2022

Hawley, Cruz escape Jan. 6 probe, have no regrets over role

president’s inner circle. in what would be seen as an unusual
House challenge to the upper cham-
“We continue to receive new infor- ber.
mation every day,” Thompson, D-
Miss., said last week, announcing the The Jan. 6 committee’s decision to
next round of hearings in September. issue subpoenas to House Minority
“We are pursuing many additional Leader Kevin McCarthy of California
witnesses for testimony.” and Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Scott
Perry of Pennsylvania, Andy Biggs of
The House committee is investigat- Arizona and Mo Brooks of Alabama
ing not only the grisly attack on the was a show of force by the nine-mem-
Capitol, but Trump’s extraordinary ber panel. And it came after much de-
effort to overturn the presidential liberation among the lawmakers, who
election by submitting “fake” slates of for weeks considered whether taking
electors from the battleground states the unprecedented step of subpoena-
to vote for him, not Biden, when ing members of their own chamber
Congress convened Jan. 6 to tally the would be worth further inflaming
2020 presidential election results. partisan tensions over the 2021 attack.
The senators could provide informa- “They only have so much committee
(AP) — The week before the Jan. history, and now on coffee mugs the tion about the run-up to Jan. 6, in- time,” said Eisen.
6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, senator sells — it has made the sur- cluding any conversations they may
Missouri’s Josh Hawley became prising, if pragmatic, decision not have had with Trump and his law- Cruz declined to say Tuesday if he
the first Republican senator to to call the senators for testimony. yers who were putting together the would have appeared had the Jan. 6
announce he would object to the One dramatic video showed Hawley plan for the fake electors, said Norm panel asked for his testimony. Haw-
certification of the 2020 election. sprinting from the Senate chamber Eisen, a senior fellow at Brookings ley’s office has similarly said he
later that day as rioters swarmed. and former top adviser to Democrats wouldn’t want to address a hypothet-
Texas’ Ted Cruz came next, dash- on the House Judiciary Committee. ical situation.
ing off his own plan on a flight from Amid wider public scrutiny of Jan. 6,
Houston to Washington days before the senators have been left to explain In one dramatic screenshot of a text But in recent conversations, the Re-
the joint session of Congress to cer- their actions on their own terms, and exchange, the committee told the publicans have stood by their efforts
tify the election results. have often done so defiantly. story of how a top aide for GOP Sen. to challenge Biden’s victory.
Ron Johnson of Wisconsin attempted
In all, a dozen GOP senators initially “I do not regret it,” Hawley said to to hand off a slate of false, pro-Trump “This country would have been much
planned to challenge Joe Biden’s vic- applause at Turning Point USA’s Stu- electors to then-Vice President Mike better off” if Congress had taken up
tory. But unlike their House GOP dent Action Summit in Tampa, Flor- Pence as he was presiding in his cere- his plan, Cruz recently told The As-
counterparts who have been subpoe- ida, after he strode to the stage Friday monial role of certifying the election. sociated Press.
naed for testimony before the Jan. 6 to a standing ovation. Johnson has said he was not involved
committee, the Republican senators in that effort. Cruz had proposed forming a com-
have largely escaped the reach of the As the summer hearings of the Jan. mission to audit voter fraud in the
investigation. 6 committee come to a close, Chair- But having interviewed more than disputed states, even though Trump’s
man Bennie Thompson has indicated 1,000 witnesses and having issued own Justice Department said there
While the committee did share high- that the panel is looking elsewhere. rare subpoenas to fellow House law- was no voter fraud on a scale that
lights about the senators, including As work continues, the investigation makers, Eisen said the panel is trying could have tipped the 2020 election.
Hawley’s raised-fist salute to the ri- is moving closer to the top ranks of to preserve its political capital by de- Dozens of court cases claiming fraud
oters that day — an image seared in the White House and the defeated clining to compel senators to testify had been rejected or gone unheard.

Records fall as Northwest swelters under multiday heat wave

(AP) — Free transporta- Elsewhere in Washington “This is pretty hot,” Carr Portland officials have land metropolitan area, will
tion to cooling centers and state, record daily tempera- said. “I can just take my uni- opened cooling centers in allow passengers who can-
garbage pickup well be- tures were also registered in form off, jump in there with public buildings and installed not afford fares to ride for
fore sunrise were among Bellingham and the capital, my shorts for my break, and misting stations in parks. Tri- free when heading to cooling
the steps being taken in Olympia, which experienced hang out for a good 10 or 15 Met, which operates public centers.
the Pacific Northwest as 90 F (32.2 C) and 97 F (36.1 minutes.” transportation in the Port-
the region hit the peak of C) respectively.
a multiday heatwave. Oregon health officials say
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown there has been an uptick in
Temperatures soared to 102 declared a state of emergen- the number of people report-
degrees Fahrenheit (38.9 cy across much of the state, ing heat-related illness in
Celsius) in Oregon’s largest warning the extreme tem- emergency departments, and
city on Tuesday, which is ex- peratures may cause utility the number of those calling
pected to be the hottest day of outages and transportation emergency services numbers
a scorching spell that will be disruptions. Temperatures for similar symptoms.
unusually long for this part of aren’t expected to cool in
the United States. It was also western Oregon and Wash- “Heat-related illness daily
a new daily record for the city ington until the weekend. visits are above expected lev-
for July 26, besting the previ- els statewide,” said Jonathan
ous mark set in 2020. Under the sweltering heat, Modie, lead communications
Matthew Carr spent his officer at the Oregon Health
Seattle also reported a new lunch break in a fountain Authority’s Public Health
all-time daily high of 94 F in downtown Portland, Or- Division. He said there were
(34.4 C), breaking the previ- egon. The 57-year-old works 32 such visits to emergency
ous record of 92 F (33.3 C) outside picking up trash for rooms on Monday compared
from 2018, according to the the city and had to find a way to three to five per day before
National Weather Service. to cool off. the heat wave began.