February 4 political news briefs

House Democrats who are leading the impeachment case against former President Donald Trump have written a letter requesting Trump to testify under oath as a witness between Monday and Thursday. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said Trump has denied many “factual allegations” about him inciting an insurrection at the Capitol so his testimony would allow him to clarify the facts.

Trump’s lawyers, in a letter, turned down the request to testify. They said Democrats were using the constitution to play games. A Trump adviser said he won’t testify in an unconstitutional proceeding.

Democrats can issue a subpoena to require Trump to show up, but it is doubtful that they would do this. Democrats already warned that if Trump refused to testify, they would use that against him.

Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyoming) won a GOP vote to maintain her position as the third most powerful Republican in the House. The vote was 145 to 61 — this was a vote by only Republicans. Cheney was under heavy criticism and pressure to have her leadership position removed because she supported Democrats in their push to impeach Trump. Cheney is safe in D.C., but she will have to face many Republicans opposed to her in her home state when she runs for re-election next year.

French President Emmanuel Macron criticized social networks like Twitter and Facebook for banning Trump’s accounts. Macron felt the tech companies cut the mic as soon as they were sure that Trump would no longer be in power. He said it was not a democratic answer.

Election technology company Smartmatic filed a $2.7 billion lawsuit against Fox News, accusing the channel and three anchors of defaming the company by making false claims about election fraud that jeopardized its business. The company also sued Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell. Smartmatic machines were only used in LA County during the 2020 election.

Fox News said they are proud of their 2020 election coverage and will defend this “meritless lawsuit” in court.

This afternoon the House voted 218-209 to advance a resolution to remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA) from her committee assignments following her controversial comments from recent years about supporting QAnon, that school shootings were fake, or for “liking” a post on Facebook that said Pelosi should be killed.

Rep. Greene gave a speech in which she said her support of QAnon was in the past and not said during her campaign or time as a Congresswoman. She also said the media was as guilty as QAnon of spreading false information.

The House vote was split along party lines — all Democrats voted to remove her seats, but all Republicans voted to keep her seats. There will be a final vote after this time I’m signing this news that is expected to remove her seats for good since Democrats have a majority.

https://www.axios.com/trump-impeachment-testify-13c9d695-1f71-4395-a09f-9777507a849b.html

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/liz-cheney-won-big-dc-still-faces-political-headaches-wyoming

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/02/04/live-updates-house-to-vote-on-marjorie-taylor-greene-committee-seats/4383759001/

https://www.axios.com/macron-social-media-bans-trump-twitter-facebook-bf8640d0-57d0-4747-affb-e91835f9fb84.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/04/business/media/smartmatic-fox-news-lawsuit.html

https://www.axios.com/smartmatic-lawsuit-fox-giuliani-powell-4c20b97f-3009-4b79-abfa-70dd17a381ea.html