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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 30, 2021)
A3 THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, JANUARY 30, 2021 Oregon GOP split on message after insurrection House lawmakers disavow ‘false fl ag’ By GARY WARNER Oregon Capital Bureau Oregon House Repub- licans disowned an offi cial Oregon Republican Party claim that the riot at the U.S. Capitol was a “false fl ag” operation by Democrats to politically damage then-Pres- ident Donald Trump. A two-page screed fea- tured a “resolution” calling 10 Republicans who voted for the impeachment of President Trump “traitors.” It claimed the mob of Trump supporters who smashed their way into the U.S. Capitol in a riot that left fi ve dead and 140 police offi cers injured was a Demo- cratic conspiracy to set off the “sham” impeachment. The episode was likened to the 1933 burning of the German Reichstag in Berlin by Nazis, who then blamed the fi re on others. They called for a “patriot network” to advance their claims. “Democrats and their enablers are trying to falsely assign blame to the peaceful protesters present that day,” the state GOP said. The hyperbolic language, embrace of dark conspiracies and invocation of Nazism was John Minchillo/AP Photo Supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. an infl ammatory brew quickly picked up by the Washing- ton Post, CNN and Britain’s Guardian newspaper. Twit- ter and Facebook spread the story around the globe. In an extraordinarily swift and unanimous rebuke, the 23 members of the House Republican caucus signed a letter rejecting the Oregon Republican Party’s offi cial statement. “There is no credible evi- dence to support false fl ag claims,” the letter said. “Ore- gon is in crisis. Vaccines are not going to our most vulnera- ble, our students are still not in a safe classroom setting, main street businesses are in a tail- spin, our health data is a mess and here we are, talking about a political party resolution.” It wasn’t the fi rst time law- makers had to respond, dis- miss or explain some action of a state political party whose decades long political right- turn had outpaced even its growingly conservative state representatives. As the par- ty’s size and infl uence has declined, the tension between those who carry the GOP ban- ner outside and those inside the Capitol trying to infl uence policy has stretched nearer to a breaking point. The lawmakers’ let- ter didn’t mention the House members or Trump’s debunked claim that the elec- tion was stolen by President Joe Biden. But with the Republicans facing a Democratic super- majority in both chambers of the Legislature just as the 2021 session began, many GOP lawmakers complained the state party was trying to score national political points instead of working to win Oregon elections. “It’s none of our business what U.S. House Represen- tatives from other states do” state Rep. Bill Post, R-Keizer, wrote in a blog post demand- ing an agenda reset. “Focus, please.” Senate Republicans did not make a group statement, but some also were angry with the timing, topic and tone of the attack. “I have not seen any cred- ible evidence to suggest that the riot at the United States Capitol was a ‘false fl ag,’” said Sen. Tim Knopp, R-Bend. “I do not support the Oregon Republican Party’s resolution. I fi nd it disheart- ening that while Oregonians are struggling, these political distractions get in the way of helping them recover.” The uproar intensifi ed when the Anti-Defamation League harshly criticized Republicans for misappropri- ating the Reichstag fi re, a pre- lude to the Holocaust, to but- tress an argument that those who were the target of the attacks were the perpetrators. “The violence at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th was a large-scale physical assault on our nation’s democratic values and institutions perpe- trated by right-wing conspir- acy theorists, extremists and supporters of former Presi- dent Trump. That is a fact,” the ADL said in a statement. The Republican lawmak- ers said they were blind- sided by the Oregon Repub- lican Party pronouncement. They were never consulted or even told in advance what was coming from the party’s 22-member executive com- mittee of GOP activists. The s tate c ommittee has provided fuel for a feud with GOP lawmakers before. The party hosted conserva- tive political fi rebrand Roger Stone at its 2018 conference in Salem. A squad of Proud Boys, the right-wing group with a reputation for violence, served as Stone’s bodyguards, fl ashing “white power” hand signs at a party after his speech. Despite the sharply con- servative tone of the state- ment, state GOP chairman Bill Currier has been criti- cized by some activists as not being conservative enough by requiring a litmus test on issues important to the par- ty’s increasingly Trump-ori- ented base. Currier said he believes the party needed to be a “big tent” that can create winning coali- tions with unaffi liated voters and disenchanted Democrats. “We need to be more focused on issues rather than trying to decide whether some given candidate meets some litmus test,” he said. “The party doesn’t pick the candi- dates, the voters do.” Critics within the party say the hard right turn of the cur- rent version of the Republican Party would reject Oregon icons like Gov. Tom McCall and U.S. Sen. Mark Hat- fi eld, who spearheaded envi- ronmental reforms and equal rights issues. Jim Moore, a professor at Pacifi c University, stud- ies public reactions to politics as outreach director from a base named after one of those long-ago Republicans: The Tom McCall Center for Civic Engagement. “The biggest impact of the ‘ false fl ag’ assertion will be it driving more moder- ate Republicans out of the party — those that are still left after fi ve years of Trump and decades of a party mov- ing to the right on all issues,” he said. The Oregon Capital Bureau is a collaboration between EO Media Group and Pamplin Media Group. Inslee loosens virus restrictions in Washington state Changes for restaurants, other indoor venues By JOSEPH O’SULLIVAN Seattle Times Pacifi c County and sev- eral other counties will be able to relax some COVID- 19 restrictions on businesses starting Monday, Washing- ton state Gov. Jay Inslee has announced. That change will allow restaurants in those coun- ties to reopen indoor service at 25% capacity through 11 p.m. Indoor fi tness cen- ters and live entertainment venues — including muse- ums, bowling alleys and con- cert halls — can also reopen to 25% capacity. Bars that don’t serve food, however, must remain closed. In a news conference Thursday, Inslee announced he was loosening the restric- tions in two of the eight regions in his Healthy Wash- ington plan. “We certainly like our progress we’ve recently made bringing down COVID activity,” Inslee said. “And so these are some promising signs we’re headed in the right direction.” But, “If we relax too much, we could be back in the horrifi c days of this with exponential growth,” the governor added later. The announcement allows King, Pierce and Snohomish counties — the Puget Sound region — to advance. Also moving for- ward is the west region, which includes Grays Har- bor, Lewis, Pacifi c and Thur- ston counties. The announcement brought swift reactions from industry associations, who called the move a step for- ward — but not far enough to help struggling businesses. “We appreciate that there’s change,” said Anthony Anton of the Wash- ington Hospitality Associ- ation in a news conference later on Thursday. But, “It’s not the change that we need. Seventy-fi ve percent of the regions will still be closed.” Anton called on Inslee to open restaurants across the state to 50% capacity, “And at the end of the day, we know we can do these things safely.” Implemented on Jan. 11, the latest plan divided Wash- ington into eight regions and set four public health benchmarks that each had to meet in order to relax some restrictions. No region, how- ever, has met those four benchmarks. Under the new require- ments, regions must meet just three of those four benchmarks to move to the second and less-restrictive phase. DEL’S O.K. TIRE Order online Food. Delivered. 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