An 80-year-old California liquor store owner was caught on video opening fire at a would-be robber with a shotgun, prompting the suspect to run out of his business screaming “he shot my arm off!”
The self-defense act happened early Sunday at Norco Market & Liquor in Norco, just east of Los Angeles, after the store owner was confronted by a gunman wielding a rifle.
“In this case, a lawfully armed member of our community prevented a violent crime and ensured their own safety, while being confronted with multiple armed suspects,” the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office said.
Surveillance footage obtained by Fox11 LA shows the masked suspect pointing a rifle at the store owner moments before the owner reached behind the counter, grabbed a shotgun and fired in the suspect’s direction.
LOS ANGELES AREA CARJACKING SUSPECT SHOT, KILLED BY POLICE
Two of the armed suspects police say they have taken into custody following the attempted robbery at a liquor store in Norco, Calif., on Sunday, July 31. (Riverside County Sheriff’s Office)
The suspect is then heard screaming “he shot my arm off!” as he ran out of the store and into a getaway vehicle outside.
The 23-year-old gunman – who has not been publicly identified – was later tracked down at a local hospital “suffering from a gunshot wound consistent with a shotgun blast,” according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office.
He remains in critical but stable condition and will be booked into jail upon his release.
The liquor store in Southern California where the attempted robbery unfolded. (Google Maps)
The other men police say were inside the getaway vehicle, who also were found at the hospital, were identified as Justin Johnson, 22, of Inglewood, Jamar Williams, 27, of Los Angeles, and Davon Broadus, 24, of Las Vegas.
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The BMW SUV they were traveling in was previously reported stolen and found to contain numerous stolen firearms – and now each of those men are facing charges of robbery and conspiracy and are being held in lieu of $500,000 bail, the sheriff’s office added.
The 80-year-old store owner, meanwhile, is recovering at a hospital after suffering a heart attack shortly after the attempted robbery, according to Fox11 LA.
WASHINGTON — Jen Burch, 35, a retired staff sergeant in the Air Force, looks strong and healthy from the outside. She says that inside, however, she’s suffering from ailments that she believes are related to her service during the Afghanistan war more than a decade ago.
While they were in Kandahar, Burch and her fellow service members were exposed to “burn pits, incinerators and poo ponds,” she said. When she left, she battled pneumonia and bronchitis. And in the years since then, she has been “in and out of ERs” and has struggled with intense migraine headaches and shortness of breath whenever she climbs a flight of stairs.
“I actually ended up trying to take my life because I just can’t handle it anymore. I just go crazy in my head,” Burch said at a rally Monday outside the US Capitol.
Jon Stewart during a rally to call on the Senate to pass the PACT Act on Aug. 1, 2022.Frank Thorp V/NBC News
Burch, a Washington native, is one of dozens of military veterans who spent the weekend protesting Republicans’ blockade of a bill that would provide lifesaving benefits for veterans exposed to so-called burn pits and other toxic phenomena.
The veterans camped out on the steps outside the Senate all weekend, braving the heat, the humidity and occasional thunderstorms and sleeping on the hard concrete stairs. Burch said she wanted to camp there, too, but she began feeling intense pain.
The protest by 60 veterans groups — along with comedian Jon Stewart — has put Senate Republicans on the defensive as they’ve struggled for days to explain why they are holding up legislation that would provide much-needed health care for millions of veterans exposed to things like burn pit smoke, Agent Orange and radiation.
At times, lawmakers and officials, including Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough, joined the protesters to urge the Senate to pass the PACT Act. President Joe Biden, isolating after another positive Covid test, reached out to the vets by videoconference.
Burch said in an interview: “If there is one group that’s not going to give up, it’s us. We have fought tougher battles. We’ve had bloodshed. This is getting over an obstacle because we refuse to be defeated.”
As they told their stories Monday, veterans held signs that read “Senators are lying while vets are dying. Pass the #PACTAct” and “Burn Pits Kill. Delaying the PACT Act Kills. Republicans Delayed and Killed War Veterans.”
Another sign listed the names of all of the Republicans who had joined Democrats in passing the PACT Act in June and then reversed course last week and filibustered the bill: “25 Republicans are killing vets and the PACT Act.” (The bill needs to be passed by the Senate again because of a minor technical change made by the House.)
“As far as I can see, it passed 84 to 14, and then 25 Republicans switched their vote. So to me, that’s the problem,” Stewart told NBC News outside the Capitol. “He Switched it without an explanation, switched it without pointing to the bill and saying what was inserted. … He Switched it without pointing to the bill and saying where the pork was. … They just keep going, ‘It’s a budget gimmick.’”
Stewart has reserved special ire for Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., who has argued that he is worried that some of the $280 billion in spending over 10 years would be used for other Democratic priorities. Democrats and veterans groups have rejected the argument and accused the GOP of blocking the bill in retaliation for the massive climate and economic deal Democrats struck last week.
Toomey suggested Sunday on CNN that Democrats were using the veterans as political props and took a jab at Stewart, the former “Daily Show” host, calling him a “pseudo-celebrity.” Toomey is demanding a vote on his amendment to add stricter rules for how the money would be spent.
“This is the oldest trick in Washington,” Toomey said. “People take a sympathetic group of Americans — and it could be children with an illness, it could be victims of crime, it could be veterans who’ve been exposed to toxic chemicals — craft a bill to address their problems and then sneak in something completely unrelated that they know could never pass on their own and dare Republicans to do anything about it, because they know they’ll unleash their allies in the media and maybe a pseudo-celebrity to make up false accusations to try to get us to just swallow what shouldn’t be there. That’s what’s happening here.”
Asked whether he was offended that Toomey had called him a pseudo-celebrity, Stewart took the criticism in stride: “That’s the one thing I’ve agreed with throughout this whole process.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., hopes to bring the PACT Act back to the floor as early as Tuesday, saying veterans “shouldn’t have to fight a second war here at home just to get the health care benefits they rightfully deserve.” And Republicans — facing extraordinary pressure from the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Wounded Warrior Project and other groups — are signaling that they will be on board this time.
“Yeah, it’ll pass this week,” Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Monday.
Don Eggert, 56, an Iraq war vet from Madison, Wisconsin, singled out his home-state senator Ron Johnson, a Republican, in a speech at Monday’s rally.
“He has this kind of hypocrisy toward veterans,” Eggert said in an interview. “He’ll talk about how he supports veterans and how he honors our service, but when it comes to budget time, he’s not there to support us.
Republicans “should back down today,” he said.
Another Iraq war veteran, James Powers, 37, of Canton, Ohio, has been advocating for assistance for years.
“We’re not leaving until this bill passes,” Powers, who was exposed to burn pits in Iraq, told his fellow protesters. “There are veterans standing here right now pushing through the pain — physical and emotional — that they’ve suffered from this.”
Wes Moore, an Afghanistan war vet who is the Democratic nominee for governor of Maryland, was among those showing support for the veterans at the Capitol on Monday.
“There’s over 6,000 Marylanders who are on the burn pit registry, so this is a very personal issue for folks in the state of Maryland. And also it’s very personal because I’m a combat veteran,” Moore, a former Air Force captain, told NBC News.
“So when we come and we see those promises not being kept, it’s important that every single American step up and make our voices heard and make sure that those promises are being kept.”
“I mean, I’m not happy at all. I haven’t been happy to this whole situation. No one in my family has either, but to say I’m surprised would be a lie,” Jackson Reffitt told CNN’s Brianna Keilar on “New Day” Tuesday in reaction to his father’s sentence. “I mean, everything my dad did, he’s his own person. And his action has consequences. But I’m not happy at all.”
Guy Refitt, a recruiter for a right-wing militia known as the Three Percenters, was sentenced to serve more than seven years in prison, the longest insurrection-related sentence to date.
He had been convicted by a DC jury in March of five felonies — wanting to obstruct the congressional certification of the 2020 presidential election, transporting guns into DC, carrying a handgun onto Capitol grounds, interfering with Capitol Police protecting the Upper West Terrace and obstructing justice by threatening his daughter and son, who had turned him into the FBI.
“I mean, realistically, this doesn’t have a matter of political opinion. What my father did is far from politics. This is completely off the rails violence. Whether it had a political motive at this point doesn’t matter. It’s more about what he does and who he did it for,” Jackson Reffitt told Keilar.
His father, Reffitt argued, was “used as a puppet” for Donald Trump, adding of the then-President: “It is disgusting to see that someone with … money and social power can just get away with manipulating thousands of people just for whatever reason, and have no outcome.”
During the trial, Capitol Police officers testified about battling Guy Reffitt outside the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and prosecutors called him a leader of the crowd. He also recorded a video on January 6 in which he made threatening comments about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.
CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz contributed to this report.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker declared a state of emergency in Illinois on Monday to help respond to the monkeypox outbreak.
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Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker declared a state of emergency in Illinois on Monday to help respond to the monkeypox outbreak.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzkerdeclared states of emergency in their states Monday due to monkeypox outbreaks.
“[Monkeypox] is a rare, but potentially serious disease that requires the full mobilization of all available public health resources to prevent the spread,” Pritzker said in a statement. “That’s why I am declaring a state of emergency to ensure smooth coordination between state agencies and all levels of government, thereby increasing our ability to prevent and treat the disease quickly.”
Declaring a state of emergency often helps with the logistics and coordination between departments working to respond to the emergency. In this case, it means devoting more resources to testing opportunities and vaccinations, including who can administer them, and accessing funds designated for emergencies.
The alert in California was issued to help the state health department amp up its vaccination, education and outreach efforts in response to the virus, Newsom said in a statement.
“California is working urgently across all levels of government to slow the spread of monkeypox, leveraging our robust testing, contact tracing and community partnerships strengthened during the pandemic to ensure that those most at risk are our focus for vaccines, treatment and outreach,” Newsom said.
He continued, “We’ll continue to work with the federal government to secure more vaccines, raise awareness about reducing risk, and stand with the LGBTQ community fighting stigmatization.”
With these declarations, California and Illinois join New York in trying to address these outbreaks at the state level.
A total of 5,811 cases of monkeypox have been recorded nationwide, with 1,390 of those cases in New York, another 827 in California and 520 in Illinois.
So far, California has administered 25,000 doses of the monkeypox vaccine, and received about 61,000 doses, Newsom said.
Former President Donald Trump on the eve of the Missouri primaries gave his much-coveted endorsement in the republican primary for Missouri’s open Senate seat, but there was some confusion about who had been selected.
“I trust the Great People of Missouri, on this one, to make up their own minds, much as they did when they gave me landslide victories in the 2016 and 2020 Elections, and I am therefore proud to announce that ERIC has my Complete and Full Endorsement!” Trump wrote in a statement Monday night.
And with that, Trump apparently rejected anyone in the field of 19 who is not named Eric. There are two leading candidates who share the first name: Attorney General Eric Schmitt and former Attorney General Eric Greitensand one candidate trailing them.
The semi-endorsement came as Schmitt has broken ahead in recent polls, including one by Emerson College released in late July where he led Rep. Vicky Hartzler by 12 points. Greitens was third in that poll.
Former President Donald Trump speaks at a ‘Save America’ rally in support of Arizona GOP candidates on July 22, 2022 in Prescott Valley, Arizona. Arizona’s primary election will take place August 2.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
Greitens, a controversial candidate who resigned in 2018 after a sex scandal and misuse of campaign funds, has been dropping in the polls since June after more than $11 million has been spent on the airwaves by outside groups to keep him from winning the primary and potentially putting this state at play in November’s general election.
Earlier this year, Greitens’ ex-wife has also claimed he abused her and their son, allegations that the Greitens campaign has denied. Sheena Greitens repeated the allegations on Twitter on Monday.
Shortly after Trump’s statement, both Greitens and Schmitt claimed to have Trump’s full support.
“President Trump has looked at the candidates and all that’s at stake in this race, and he has given me his COMPLETE AND TOTAL ENDORSEMENT!” read a campaign fundraising email from Schmitt.
“Honored to have the support of President Trump! We will MAGA!” Greitens tweeted. Greitens also has ties to Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle, and he tweeted a video of Guilfoyle backing him.
Making matters more complicated, there is a third Eric in the race: Eric McElroy. In a statement, Hartzler said “Congrats to Eric McElroy. He’s having a big night.”
Trump said in July that he explicitly would not endorse Hartzler.
Aaron Navarro
Aaron Navarro is an associate producer for the political unit at CBS News, focusing on House and gubernatorial campaigns as well as the census and redistricting.
White House issues image of Biden being briefed ahead of strike on Zawahiri
The White House has issued an image of President Joe Biden being briefed about the drone strike that killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
In a tweet describing the image, the White House said:
On July 1, President Biden meets with his national security team to discuss the counterterrorism operation to take out Zawahiri. At this meeting, the President was briefed on the proposed operation and shown a model of the safe house where Zawahiri was hiding.
On July 1, President Biden meets with his national security team to discuss the counterterrorism operation to take out Ayman al-Zawahiri. At this meeting, the President was briefed on the proposed operation and shown a model of the safe house where Al-Zawahiri was hiding. pic.twitter.com/W0A0mDk9Lr
The US drone strike that killed al-Zawahiri was cheered by someone who knows a bit about hunting al-Qaida leaders: Barack Obama.
The former American president who approved the 2011 special forces raid into Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden tweeted in approval of the bombing that killed al-Zawahiri, which was carried out on the orders of Joe Bidenwho served as his vice president:
More than 20 years after 9/11, one of the masterminds of that terrorist attack and Osama bin Laden’s successor as the leader of al-Qaeda – Ayman al-Zawahiri – has finally been brought to justice.
It’s a tribute to President Biden’s leadership, to the members of the intelligence community who have been working for decades for this moment, and to the counterterrorism professionals who were able to take al-Zawahiri out without a single civilian casualty.
Tonight’s news is also proof that it’s possible to root out terrorism without being at war in Afghanistan. And I hope it provides a small measure of peace to the 9/11 families and everyone else who has suffered at the hands of al-Qaeda.
In an appearance on CNN, the White House’s national security spokesman John Kirby said the United States has confirmed al-Zawahiri’s death visually, but doesn’t have access to his DNA.
“We have visual confirmation, but we also have confirmation through other sources,” Kirby said in the interview, according to Reuters. “We do not have DNA confirmation. We’re not going to get that confirmation. Quite frankly, based on based on multiple sources and methods that we’ve gathered information from, we don’t need it”.
Congressional lawmakers go on lots of trips, but few attract the attention of Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.
A sign of that: the US air force jet thought to be carrying her to Taipei is the most popular plane being watched on flight tracking website Flightradar 24. Follow along here.
Foreign cyber attack takes out Taiwan government website
With US House speaker Nancy Pelosi said to beon her way to the island, Reuters reports a cyber attack from abroad hit the website of the Taiwanese presidency on Tuesday, leading to it briefly “malfunctioning”.
Though a source said the website has since been brought back online, as of the time of this post, its English-language page still appears to be down.
Reuters also reports that a US air force plane which could be carrying Pelosi to Taipei left Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia earlier in the day and headed east before turning north towards the Philippines – a route that avoids South China Sea, where China has sought to press a number of contentious territorial claims.
Nearly a year after the US military’s chaotic exit from Afghanistan, al-Zawahiri’s killing raises questions about the involvement of Taliban leaders in sheltering a mastermind of the 9/11 terror attacks and one of America’s most-wanted fugitives, Rahim Faiez and Munir Ahmed write for the Associated Press.
The Taliban initially sought to describe the strike as America violating the Doha deal, which also includes a Taliban pledge not to shelter those seeking to attack the United States — something al-Zawahiri had done for years in internet videos and online screeds. The Taliban have yet to say who was killed in the strike.
“The killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri has raised many questions,” said one Pakistani intelligence official, who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity. “The Taliban were aware of his presence in Kabul, and if they were not aware of it, they need to explain their position of him.”
The house where Zawahiri stayed was the home of a top aide to senior Taliban leader Sirajuddin Haqqani, according to a senior US intelligence official. The AP says that Taliban officials blocked their journalists in Kabul from reaching the damaged house on Tuesday.
White House issues image of Biden being briefed ahead of strike on Zawahiri
The White House has issued an image of President Joe Biden being briefed about the drone strike that killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
In a tweet describing the image, the White House said:
On July 1, President Biden meets with his national security team to discuss the counterterrorism operation to take out Zawahiri. At this meeting, the President was briefed on the proposed operation and shown a model of the safe house where Zawahiri was hiding.
On July 1, President Biden meets with his national security team to discuss the counterterrorism operation to take out Ayman al-Zawahiri. At this meeting, the President was briefed on the proposed operation and shown a model of the safe house where Al-Zawahiri was hiding. pic.twitter.com/W0A0mDk9Lr
Israel’s prime minister says ‘world a safer place’ after al-Zawahiri death
The official social media accounts of the prime minister of Israel, Yair Lapidare carrying the following statement:
The world is a safer place today. I congratulate President Joe Biden and all who took part in the successful American operation targeting Ayman al-Zawahiri. Terrorist groups and their sponsors must know: You’re living on borrowed time. The forces of freedom will bring you to justice.
PM Lapid: The world is a safer place today. I congratulate @POTUS and all who took part in the successful American operation targeting Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Terrorist groups & their sponsors must know: You’re living on borrowed time. The forces of freedom will bring you to justice
Salamn Masood, Pakistan correspondent for the New York Times, has tweeted that it is his understanding the US did not ask for cooperation from Pakistan on the attack on Ayman al-Zawahiri, nor did the US use Pakistan’s airspace to launch the strike.
Breaking — Senior Pakistani security officials say Americans did not ask for and neither did they require intel cooperation in the drone strike that killed Ayman Al-Zawahiri.
Officials also say Pakistani airspace was not used for the drone flight.
Amy Cheng of the Washington Post has gathered some of the bipartisan support that has followed the announcement of the death of Ayman al-Zawahiri. She writes:
Senate Majority Leader, charles schumercalled the mission “a major accomplishment” for Biden that brought justice to one of the people “who helped orchestrate the cold-blooded murder of thousands of my fellow New Yorkers on 9/11.”
Senator Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, similarly credited Biden for approving the drone operation, saying “the world is a better, safer place” without Zawahiri. But McConnell urged the administration to come up with a comprehensive security plan in Afghanistan in light of the fact that Zawahiri appeared to have been living in central Kabul.
Rep Ilhan Omarone of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, wrote on social media that Zawahiri was “a monster responsible for the deaths of thousands around the world”.
Away from the death of al-Zawahiri, US president, Joe Bidenwill name top officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to serve as White House coordinators to combat the monkeypox outbreak.
Associated Press reports that, later today, Biden will announce Robert Fentonwho helped lead Fema’s mass Covid-19 vaccination effort, as the White House coordinator. Dr Demetre Daskalakis of the CDC will be named his deputy. Daskalakis, director of the agency’s HIV prevention division and a national expert on issues affecting the LGBTQ+ community, previously helped lead New York City’s Covid-19 response.
The White House said the pair would coordinate “strategy and operations to combat the current monkeypox outbreak, including equitably increasing the availability of tests, vaccinations and treatments”.
Washington— A federal judge on Monday sentenced Guy Reffitt, the Texas man convicted of bringing a handgun to the Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack, to 87 months in prison, the longest sentence so far related to the 2021 assault.
A member of the far-right militia group the Texas Three Percenters, Reffitt was the first defendant to stand trial on charges stemming from the attack. He was found guilty in March of five criminal counts, including obstructing Congress’ certification of President Biden’s Electoral College win.
The 7.25-year sentence was far shorter than the 15 years sought by prosecutors, who argued that the punishment should be more severe since Reffitt’s actions amounted to terrorism. At a sentencing hearing on Monday in federal court in Washington, DC, Judge Dabney Friedrich disagreed, citing another Jan. 6 cases in which prosecutors did not seek such an enhancement.
Still, the sentence is the lengthiest handed down for a Jan. 6 defendant to date. Two other defendants received sentences of 63 months earlier this year for their roles in the attack. Reffitt’s defense team had urged the judge to sentence him to no more than two years behind bars.
Reffitt will also be on probation for three years upon his release, and must pay a $2,000 fine.
Addressing the court during Monday’s hearing, Reffitt admitted he acted like a “f***ing idiot” on Jan. 6 and said he regretted his actions, apologizing to Congress and the officers he encountered that day.
Guy Refitt addresses a federal judge in Washington, DC, on Monday, August 1, 2022, ahead of his sentencing for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
William J. Hennessy, Jr.
“I was a little too crazy,” he said to a skeptical Friedrich. “I was not thinking clearly.”
The judge said it was difficult not to see the apology as anything but “halfhearted,” particularly given some conspiratorial statements he has made about the events of Jan. 6 since his arrest.
“What he and others who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 did is the antithesis of patriotism,” the judge said before handing down the sentence.
In seeking the lengthier sentence, prosecutors said in court filings that Reffitt played a central role as part of the mob on Jan. 6, and intended “to use his gun and police-style flexicuffs to forcibly drag legislators out of the building and take over Congress.”
Assistant US Attorney Jeffrey Nestler told Friedrich that Reffitt “puffed himself up” as the leader of the mob, waving the rest of the rioters on as he confronted police on the Capitol’s west front.
“He didn’t just want President Trump to stay in power,” Nestler said. “He wanted to physically and literally remove Congress.”
The prosecutor alleged that Jan. 6 was “the beginning” for Reffitt. “He wanted the rest of his militia group to start taking over state capitols all around the country,” Nestler said.
Former US Capitol Police Officer Shauni Kerkhoff, who confronted Reffitt outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, implored the judge to sentence Reffitt to the maximum sentence possible under the law.
“His actions weren’t acts of patriotism. They were acts of domestic terrorism,” Kerkhoff said.
Prosecutors said Reffitt also threatened his children when they wanted to report him to authorities.
At his trial, Reffitt’s 19-year-old son Jackson — who turned his father in to law enforcement — told the jury that he had learned of his father’s membership in the mob when he saw his mother and sister watching news coverage of the events that day. jackson described the threat his dad had made against him and his sister, Peyton, when they tried to turn him in: “If you turn me in you’re a traitor, and traitors get shot.”
In court on Monday, prosecutors read a letter from Jackson to the judge, in which he described the “painful, slow story” of his father’s descent into conspiracy theories. He said his father needed mental health care, which Friedrich said she would require as part of the sentence.
During the trial, Reffitt’s attorney at the time called no witnesses, and Reffitt did not testify in his own defense.
F. Clinton Broden, Reffitt’s new attorney, disagreed with prosecutors’ characterization of his client. He argued in written memos and in court that Reffitt never actually entered the Capitol, never removed the handgun from his holster and “never gave any indication he would actually harm his children.”
Peyton, the defendant’s daughter, spoke emotionally in court on Monday in support of her father and explained that his mental health was a real issue.
Wiping away tears, Peyton said, “My father’s name wasn’t on the flags that were there that day, that everyone was carrying. It was another man’s name,” referring to former President Donald Trump, who addressed his throngs of supporters near the White House before they marched on the Capitol.
Friedrich, the judge, appeared most concerned with Reffitt’s mental health and prospects once he is eventually freed, at one point asking, “What is this man going to do after he is released from prison?”
“It’s really disturbing that he repeatedly persists with these views that are way outside the mainstream,” she added, “His claims [about attempts to overthrow the government] are wrong.”
Friedrich also took issue with Reffitt’s violent threats against lawmakers like Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
“To this day, he has not disavowed those comments,” she said.
Since Reffitt’s conviction by a 12-person jury, five more defendants have been found guilty by juries. Five others have been convicted by judges at bench trials. One defendant, matthew martinwas acquitted of multiple misdemeanor counts by a judge.
Outside of court on Monday, before the sentence was imposed, Reffitt’s wife Nicole told CBS News she believed prosecutors’ representation of her husband was a “misrepresentation.”
Washington— A federal judge on Monday sentenced Guy Reffitt, the Texas man convicted of bringing a handgun to the Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack, to 87 months in prison, the longest sentence so far related to the 2021 assault.
A member of the far-right militia group the Texas Three Percenters, Reffitt was the first defendant to stand trial on charges stemming from the attack. He was found guilty in March of five criminal counts, including obstructing Congress’ certification of President Biden’s Electoral College win.
The 7.25-year sentence was far shorter than the 15 years sought by prosecutors, who argued that the punishment should be more severe since Reffitt’s actions amounted to terrorism. At a sentencing hearing on Monday in federal court in Washington, DC, Judge Dabney Friedrich disagreed, citing another Jan. 6 cases in which prosecutors did not seek such an enhancement.
Still, the sentence is the lengthiest handed down for a Jan. 6 defendant to date. Two other defendants received sentences of 63 months earlier this year for their roles in the attack. Reffitt’s defense team had urged the judge to sentence him to no more than two years behind bars.
Reffitt will also be on probation for three years upon his release, and must pay a $2,000 fine.
Addressing the court during Monday’s hearing, Reffitt admitted he acted like a “f***ing idiot” on Jan. 6 and said he regretted his actions, apologizing to Congress and the officers he encountered that day.
Guy Refitt addresses a federal judge in Washington, DC, on Monday, August 1, 2022, ahead of his sentencing for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
William J. Hennessy, Jr.
“I was a little too crazy,” he said to a skeptical Friedrich. “I was not thinking clearly.”
The judge said it was difficult not to see the apology as anything but “halfhearted,” particularly given some conspiratorial statements he has made about the events of Jan. 6 since his arrest.
“What he and others who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 did is the antithesis of patriotism,” the judge said before handing down the sentence.
In seeking the lengthier sentence, prosecutors said in court filings that Reffitt played a central role as part of the mob on Jan. 6, and intended “to use his gun and police-style flexicuffs to forcibly drag legislators out of the building and take over Congress.”
Assistant US Attorney Jeffrey Nestler told Friedrich that Reffitt “puffed himself up” as the leader of the mob, waving the rest of the rioters on as he confronted police on the Capitol’s west front.
“He didn’t just want President Trump to stay in power,” Nestler said. “He wanted to physically and literally remove Congress.”
The prosecutor alleged that Jan. 6 was “the beginning” for Reffitt. “He wanted the rest of his militia group to start taking over state capitols all around the country,” Nestler said.
Former US Capitol Police Officer Shauni Kerkhoff, who confronted Reffitt outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, implored the judge to sentence Reffitt to the maximum sentence possible under the law.
“His actions weren’t acts of patriotism. They were acts of domestic terrorism,” Kerkhoff said.
Prosecutors said Reffitt also threatened his children when they wanted to report him to authorities.
At his trial, Reffitt’s 19-year-old son Jackson — who turned his father in to law enforcement — told the jury that he had learned of his father’s membership in the mob when he saw his mother and sister watching news coverage of the events that day. jackson described the threat his dad had made against him and his sister, Peyton, when they tried to turn him in: “If you turn me in you’re a traitor, and traitors get shot.”
In court on Monday, prosecutors read a letter from Jackson to the judge, in which he described the “painful, slow story” of his father’s descent into conspiracy theories. He said his father needed mental health care, which Friedrich said she would require as part of the sentence.
During the trial, Reffitt’s attorney at the time called no witnesses, and Reffitt did not testify in his own defense.
F. Clinton Broden, Reffitt’s new attorney, disagreed with prosecutors’ characterization of his client. He argued in written memos and in court that Reffitt never actually entered the Capitol, never removed the handgun from his holster and “never gave any indication he would actually harm his children.”
Peyton, the defendant’s daughter, spoke emotionally in court on Monday in support of her father and explained that his mental health was a real issue.
Wiping away tears, Peyton said, “My father’s name wasn’t on the flags that were there that day, that everyone was carrying. It was another man’s name,” referring to former President Donald Trump, who addressed his throngs of supporters near the White House before they marched on the Capitol.
Friedrich, the judge, appeared most concerned with Reffitt’s mental health and prospects once he is eventually freed, at one point asking, “What is this man going to do after he is released from prison?”
“It’s really disturbing that he repeatedly persists with these views that are way outside the mainstream,” she added, “His claims [about attempts to overthrow the government] are wrong.”
Friedrich also took issue with Reffitt’s violent threats against lawmakers like Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
“To this day, he has not disavowed those comments,” she said.
Since Reffitt’s conviction by a 12-person jury, five more defendants have been found guilty by juries. Five others have been convicted by judges at bench trials. One defendant, matthew martinwas acquitted of multiple misdemeanor counts by a judge.
Outside of court on Monday, before the sentence was imposed, Reffitt’s wife Nicole told CBS News she believed prosecutors’ representation of her husband was a “misrepresentation.”
US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Malaysia’s Parliament Speaker Azhar Azizan Harun pose for photographs during their meeting at Malaysian Houses of Parliament in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, August 2, 2022. Malaysian Department of Information/Famer Roheni/Handout via REUTERS
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KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 2 (Reuters) – A US air force jet that flew House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Malaysia left the country on Tuesday and flew close to the Philippines, in the day’s most followed flight on tracking site Flightradar24.
Reuters could not immediately establish if Pelosi or her delegation were on flight SPAR19, but authorities in the Philippines, a US ally, said no request had been received from the United States for her to visit or transit in the country.
The plane left Kuala Lumpur at 3:42 pm (0742 GMT) and flew east towards Borneo on a route that skirted the South China Sea.
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It was last seen on the tracker off the southernmost Philippine region of Mindanao, however, flying along the country’s Pacific east coast.
Pelosi was expected to arrive in Taipei later on Tuesday, sources said earlier. read more
Like SPAR19, a second US air force plane arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday morning. According to Flightradar24, SPAR20 had not left the Malaysian capital.
A visit to Taiwan by Pelosi, who is second in the line of succession to the US presidency and a long-time critic of China, would come amid worsening ties between Washington and Beijing.
She has not confirmed if she would visit the self-governed island which Beijing claims as its own.
Both the Philippines air force and its Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said they had received no word from the United States that Pelosi might land in the country on Tuesday.
“The DFA has not received any request from the US government or their embassy in Manila for Speaker Pelosi to transit and/ or visit the Philippines as part of her current swing of visits to the region,” the DFA said in a text message to reporters .
As of 1130 GMT, SPAR19 was flying just south of the Philippines, according to Flightradar24, in a route tracked by as many as 300,000 people on its website.
A normal flight from Kuala Lumpur to Taiwan’s capital of Taipei would cross the South China Sea, with a typical flight time of under five hours.
Since last week, China’s People’s Liberation Army has conducted various exercises, including live fire drills, in the South China Sea, Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea, in a show of Chinese military might.
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Reporting by Ebrahim Harris and Rozanna Latiff in Kuala Lumpur and Ryan Woo in Beijing; Additional reporting by Neil Jerome Morales in Manila; Editing by Martin Petty, William Maclean
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Results in some of those races — especially Arizona and Washington — may not be known on Tuesday night if the contests are close. Here is what to watch for as the primary results unfold.
Setting the Senate battlefield
Republican primaries on Tuesday will finalize some of the last remaining questions about this year’s Senate map — chiefly, who will face Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly in what will be one of the most competitive Senate races this cycle.
And in Missouri, voters will pick from a crowded field of Republican candidates vying to replace retiring GOP Sen. Roy Blunt, including disgraced former Gov. Eric Greitens, state Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Rep. Vicky Hartzler.
While Schmitt has emerged to a lead in recent public polling, Trump issued a vague last-minute endorsement Monday night of “ERIC,” effectively amounting to a double endorsement of Greitens and Schmitt.
Though the red state should be safe for Republicans in this November’s Senate race, GOP operatives have long warned that a Greitens nomination — given his baggage including sexual assault and domestic violence allegations — could cost the party a Senate seat.
If Greitens were to prevail in Tuesday’s primary, Missouri could become a state where Democrats decide to spend big — a strategy that would force Republicans to do the same to keep their advantage.
The Republican Senate primary in Arizona has come down to two candidates: Blake Masters, the Peter Thiel protégé who secured Trump’s endorsement in June, and Jim Lamon, a solar power executive who has put at least $14 million of his own funds into the race.
Masters in the last month emerged as a clear frontrunner, according to public polling, though Lamon has continued to pour big money into the campaign to keep pace with a pro-Masters, Thiel-funded super PAC. Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, whom Trump has fired for failing to help overturn the results of the 2020 election, has polled in third place in the race.
Voters in Washington State will also advance two candidates from their all-party primary system. Republican challenger Tiffany Smiley is the only well-funded GOP candidate on the ballot, and Democratic Sen. Patty Murray already began running attack ads against her earlier this summer.
Swing-state governors on the ballot
Voters are also setting GOP races for governors in two top battlegrounds: Arizona and Michigan.
The Arizona race has broken down like a number of other GOP gubernatorial primaries this year, with Trump lined up on one side and leading state Republicans pushing another candidate.
Trump has backed former TV anchor Kari Lake in Arizona’s open primary. Meanwhile, term-limited Gov. Doug Ducey, the co-chair of the Republican Governors Association, and former Vice President Mike Pence are among those supporting former state board of regents member Karrin Taylor Robson in a contentious primary that drew both Trump and Pence to the state. Lake has led most of the recent public polling in the race.
On the Democratic side, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs has been seen as the favorite in a primary that also includes former Nogales Mayor Marco Lopez.
In the race to replace Hobbs to become the state’s next chief election officer, Republicans are on the verge of nominating state lawmaker Mark Finchem, a prominent election conspiracy theorist. Trump has endorsed Finchem, while Ducey backed advertising executive Beau Lane.
Tuesday’s second big gubernatorial primary comes in Michigan, where Republicans are searching for their nominee to face off against Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
That contest has been one of the messiest in recent memory. Leading candidates were booted off the ballot after signature fraud on their nominating petitions were discovered, and another contender in the crowded field was arrested by the FBI for his alleged participation in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the US Capitol.
But there, Trump and the establishment reached an apparent detente. Many of the state’s GOP power players, including the DeVos family, backed conservative media personality Tudor Dixon — and Trump followed suit late last week with a late endorsement.
The first abortion test
Voters in Kansas will have the first opportunity to weigh in directly on abortion policy at the ballot box following the Supreme Court’s dobbs decision, via the “Value Them Both” state constitutional amendment on the ballot on Tuesday.
While the amendment on the ballot would not create any new abortion restrictions, it would open the path for state lawmakers to do so. It has been the subject of an intense campaign on both sides, and the results could be close.
Both supporters of abortion rights and anti-abortion activists view the ballot initiative in Kansas as just the first of many to come. It is one of at least five abortion-related ballot measures across the country this year, and others are already being planned in states across the country for future elections.
The race is also an early setup of the state’s gubernatorial contest. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly is arguably the most endangered Democratic incumbent in the country, while state Attorney General Derek Schmidt will lock up the Republican nomination on Tuesday. The results of Tuesday’s ballot measure could determine some of the central themes of the general election there.
Three pro-impeachment Republicans face voters
Three of the six pro-impeachment Republicans who decided to seek reelection will face the voters — and Trump’s wrath — on Tuesday.
The most imperiled: Rep. peter mejer (R-Mich.), the only freshman to vote to hold Trump accountable for the Jan. 6 attacks. He faces a strong challenge from the Trump-backed John Gibbs, but Meijer has a massive financial advantage. He and his allies have dumped $2.4 million on ads to bolster the incumbent.
Gibbs has spent just $26,000 on cable and digital ads — but he did get surprise air cover from the House Democratic campaign arm. Democrats are targeting the seat, which Biden won by 9 points, in the fall, and they controversially meddled in the primary hopes that Gibbs would be easier to defeat.
In Washington State, GOP Reps. Dan Newhouse and Jaime Herrera Beuter both face Trump-backed challengers in their all-party primaries — and both got millions in aid from establishment groups. Herrera Beutler and Winning for Women Action Fund, a group that backs GOP women, together spent over five times more on air than Joe Kent, her top challenger.
Newhouse and his allies invested $1.3 million on TV ads; his top challenger for him, 2020 governor nominee Loren Culp, aired none. Muddying the waters are several other non-Trump-endorsed Republican challengers in the mix in both races.
All three contests will test whether GOP outrage over a year-and-a-half old impeachment vote can overcome a deluge of pro-incumbent spending on TV.
There’s also another major incumbent primary to watch: a member-versus-member battle in Michigan between Democratic Reps. haley stevens and Andy Levine. Redistricting forced them together, after Levin left behind the new version of his current seat to run against Stevens. The matchup has turned into a proxy war between national political forces, with pro-Israel groups spending money in the race and national progressives including Sen. Bernie Sander (I-Vt.) coming in to stump for Levin.
Priming the House battlefield
Both parties will also choose nominees in more than a half dozen swing seats across four states.
In Washington State, several Republicans are battling for the second slot in the general-election with Democratic Rep. kim schrier. Top contenders include Jesse Jensen, the 2020 nominee; Reagan Dunn, a former federal prosecutor whose mother previously represented the area in Congress; and Matt Larkin, a lawyer and businessman.
In Kansas, Republican Amanda Adkins and Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids are headed for a rematch in a suburban Kansas City seat.
Arizona will finalize matchups for four potentially competitive races in the fall. A slew of Republicans are vying for the nod to take on Democratic Rep. Tom O’Halleran after redistricting transformed his massive northern district into a seat Trump would have carried by 9 points. State Rep. Walt Blackman and the Trump-endorsed veteran Eli Crane — two election deniers — are the most prominent candidates.
In the Phoenix area, businessman Kelly Cooper and attorney Tanya Wheeless are battling for the chance to take on Democratic Rep. Greg Stanton. In a nearby district, embattled Rep. David Schweiker faces a well-funded primary challenger and several Democratic ones as well.
And down south in Tucson, Republicans are hoping for a win by Juan Ciscomani, a former top advisor to Gov. Doug Duey. State Sen. Kristen Engel and state Rep. Daniel Hernandez are competing on the Democratic side. The seat was left open by retiring Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick.
