@ForLibrarians @indystar Here’s the defining image of Sen. …

@ForLibrarians @indystar Braun said on Twitter at 12:43 p.m. Wednesday.

You know, just a U.S. senator from Indiana throwing out the votes of millions of Americans like it’s no big deal. That’s apparently how Braun felt — that it’s all a meaningless, temporary joke to placate a sensitive loser ...

@ForLibrarians @indystar of a president and then everyone can move on. A few days earlier, Braun absurdly pretended there would be no consequences to taking formal action to overturn the November presidential election. What’d he call it? That’s right, pretended there would be no consequences to taking...

@ForLibrarians formal action to overturn the November presidential election. What’d he call it? That’s right, pretended there would be no consequences to taking formal action to overturn the November presidential election. What’d he call it? That’s right,

a 'protest vote.' Braun showed up ...

@ForLibrarians Note! I'm watching the news so I have the time to do this =D

@ForLibrarians at the Capitol ready to protest Wednesday alongside several of his Republican colleagues. He tagged Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in his tweet, a show of unity with one of his co-conspirators in the Republican Party’s reality-denying MAGA wing, which has been perpetuating President Donald

@ForLibrarians Trump’s lies about voter fraud and seeking to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s victory.

But within a couple hours of Braun’s jovial tweet, Congress would be sheltering in place after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol. The trespassers, some of whom were armed, breached

@ForLibrarians multiple layers of Capitol security and interrupted the reprehensible effort by Braun and other Trump-flattering Republicans to object to the election certification.

Let’s be clear: Those rioters were Braun’s guests. They arrived in Washington, D.C., broke through barricades and

@ForLibrarians assailed the Capitol steps in an act of communion with Braun and all the other Republicans who sought to serve their idol Trump.

It’s not just Braun, of course. This dystopia is the product of five years of nearly universal Republican acquiescence to Trump. Wednesday was one of

@ForLibrarians the darkest days in American history. It was the first time since 1814, when the British bombarded Washington during the War of 1812, that the Capitol had been overtaken.

There is a long list of Indiana Republicans to blame for this historic humiliation, starting with Vice

@ForLibrarians President Mike Pence, who has recast himself from principled conservative to subservient lapdog in support of Trump’s every whim, no matter how indefensible. That is, at least, until Wednesday when Pence achieved a modicum of redemption and rebuked Trump’s demands that he take

@ForLibrarians unilateral action to prevent Biden’s certification.

'It is my considered judgment that my oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not,' Pence wrote in a

@ForLibrarians long statement explaining why, finally, he refused to do something that Trump asked of him.

Pence is not the only Indiana Republican who acted with honor just before chaos reigned. Sen. Todd Young showed a rare burst of emotion while

explaining to protesters that he would not

@ForLibrarians vote against Biden’s inevitable election certification.

'The law matters,' Young said during a heated outdoors interaction in which he repeatedly adjusted his mask and his voice seemed to crack. 'I took an oath under God. Under God, I took an oath. Do we still take that

@ForLibrarians seriously in this country?'

The exchange came off as performative, yet also an endearingly earnest expression of his conservative values, which have come into direct conflict with the career ambitions of many of his fellow Republicans.

If you followed the weakening of American

@ForLibrarians democracy from a Hoosier lens, then the words of Pence and Young were the extent of the highlights. Their last-minute explicit opposition to Trump’s efforts to overturn his election loss did not make up for the times when they lacked courage, but it did set them apart from other

@ForLibrarians Indiana Republicans who had made peace with their choices to prioritize careers over country and honor.
It is worth listing their names and remembering their pathetic actions for the rest of their political careers.
Braun, Rep.Jim Banks and Rep.Jackie Walorski had each publicly

@ForLibrarians expressed their intent to participate in the farcical objection to legal votes in several states.

Before that, Reps. Trey Hollingsworth, James Baird and Greg Pence, as well as Banks and Walorski, had

signed onto an absurd amicus brief in support of a Texas lawsuit that got

@ForLibrarians rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court. In addition, Attorney General Curtis Hill and Attorney General-elect Todd Rokita have been two of the most brazen Indiana purveyors of Trump’s election fraud claims.
Trump is first and foremost responsible for the reprehensible events that went

@ForLibrarians down Wednesday. His lies about a stolen election and his winks and nods at violent right-wing extremists who have long seemed more than willing to do something about it will be his legacy.

Powerful Indiana Republicans, from Pence on down to rank-and-file members of Congress,

@ForLibrarians have been all-too-enthusiastic to offer their hands. Collectively, they have made America worse than it was four years ago. That was plainly and objectively true, on full display in the horrific images on our televisions Wednesday.

As much as we’ll never forget what it looked

@ForLibrarians like when rioters took over the Capitol, we also should remember what it looked like when Braun and some of his fellow Republicans egged them on. These Republicans wanted their objection to Biden’s win to be a career-making moment. They got their wishes.

@ForLibrarians The effects of their self-centeredness have been well documented for posterity.

End

James Briggs - Indianapolis Star article 1/7/2021

@ForLibrarians @threadreaderapp unroll please

@indystar Here’s the defining image of Sen. Mike Braun’s shameful political career.

He’s sitting at a desk in the Capitol wearing a gray suit and blue mask. He’s holding a blue pen in his right hand, the tip hovering over a sheet of paper.

'Signing my objection to Arizona electors,' ...

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@indystar Here’s the defining image of Sen. Mike Braun’s shameful political career.He’s sitting at a desk in the Capitol wearing a gray suit and blue mask. He’s holding a blue pen in his right hand, the tip hovering over a sheet of paper.'Signing my objection to Arizona electors,' ...

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@indystar Here’s the defining image of Sen. Mike Braun’s shameful political career.

He’s sitting at a desk in the Capitol wearing a gray suit and blue mask. He’s holding a blue pen in his right hand, the tip hovering over a sheet of paper.

'Signing my objection to Arizona electors,' ...