BAKER CITY HERALD • TUESDAY, JUNE 14, 2022 A5
STATE & NATION
Trump ‘detached from reality’
over election, Jan. 6 witness says
BY LISA MASCARO
AND MARY CLARE JALONICK
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Don-
ald Trump’s closest campaign
advisers, top government offi-
cials and even his family were
dismantling his false claims
of 2020 voting fraud on elec-
tion night, but the defeated
president was becoming “de-
tached from reality,” clinging
to outlandish theories to stay
in power, several said.
Trump’s former campaign
manager Bill Stepien testified
Monday, June 13 before the
House Jan. 6 committee that
Trump was “growing increas-
ingly unhappy” at the election
results as the night wore on.
Son-in-law Jared Kushner
tried to steer Trump away
from attorney Rudy Giuliani
and his far-flung theories of
voter fraud that advisers be-
lieved were not true.
Former Justice Department
official Richard Donoghue
recalls breaking down one
claim after another — from a
truckload of ballots in Penn-
sylvania to a missing suitcase
of ballots in Georgia —- and
telling Trump “much of the
info you’re getting is false.”
“He was becoming de-
tached from reality,” said for-
mer Attorney General Wil-
liam Barr, who resigned. “I
didn’t want to be a part of it.”
The witnesses appeared
before the House committee
investigating the Jan. 6 Capi-
tol attack as the panel focused
on the “big lie,” Trump’s false
claims of voter fraud that fu-
eled the defeated Republican
president’s efforts to overturn
the 2020 election and pro-
voked a mob of his supporters
to lay siege to the U.S. Capitol.
Most of those appearing did
so in previously recorded tes-
timony from closed door in-
terviews over the course of the
panel’s yearlong investigation.
The committee has interviewed
some 1,000 witnesses and com-
piled 140,000 documents, and
some members say they have
uncovered enough evidence for
the Justice Department to con-
sider an unprecedented crimi-
nal indictment against the for-
mer president.
Chairman Rep. Bennie
Thompson, D-Miss., opened
Monday’s hearing saying
Trump “betrayed the trust
of the American people” and
“tried to remain in office when
people had voted him out.”
Stepien was to be a key wit-
NORTHWEST
Mass arrest outside
Idaho pride event
31 Patriot Front
members planned
to riot, police say
BY MARTHA BELLISLE
Associated Press
Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times-TNS
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) during a House Select Committee to Inves-
tigate the January 6th hearing in the Cannon House Office Building
on Thursday, June 9, 2022, in Washington, D.C.
ness Monday, but abruptly
backed out of appearing live
because his wife went into la-
bor. The ex-campaign man-
ager is still close to Trump,
and had been subpoenaed for
to appear.
But the panel marched
ahead after a morning scram-
ble, showing previously re-
corded testimony from the
ex-campaign manager and
others close to the president
as Trump latched on to re-
peated false claims about the
election although those clos-
est told him the theories of
stolen ballots or rigged voting
machines were not true.
Stepien described how the
festive mood at the White
House on election night
turned as Fox News an-
nounced Trump had lost the
state of Arizona to Joe Biden,
and aides worked to counsel
Trump on what to do next.
But he turned a deaf ear to
them, choosing to listen in-
stead to Giuliani, who was de-
scribed as inebriated by several
witnesses. Giuliani issued a
general denial on Monday, re-
jecting “all falsehoods” he said
were being said about him.
“My belief, my recommen-
dation was to say that votes
were still being counted, it’s
too early to tell, too early to
call the race,” Stepien said in
the recorded testimony.
But Trump “thought I was
wrong. He told me so.”
Kushner testified that he
told Trump the approach Gi-
uliani was taking was not one
he would take. But the presi-
dent pushed back and said he
had confidence in the attorney.
And Barr, who had previ-
ously testified in last week’s
blockbuster hearing that he
told Trump the allegations
being raised were bull——,
revealed in gripping detail
how was “as mad as I’d ever
seen him” when the attorney
general explained that the Jus-
tice Department would not
take sides in the election.
Monday’s hearing also fea-
tured other live witnesses,
including Chris Stirewalt, a
former Fox News Channel
political editor who declared
on Election Night that Ari-
zona was being won by Biden.
Thompson, D-Miss., and
vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney,
R-Wyo., were leading the
hearing after last week’s
blockbuster session drew
nearly 20 million Americans
to see its prime-time findings.
For the past year, the com-
mittee has been investigating
the most violent attack on
the Capitol since the War of
1812 to ensure such an as-
sault never happens again.
Lawmakers hope to show that
Trump’s effort to overturn Joe
Biden’s election victory posed
a grave threat to democracy.
A second group of wit-
nesses testifying Monday was
to be made up of election
officials, investigators and
experts who were likely to
discuss Trump’s responses to
the election, including doz-
ens of failed court challenges,
and how his actions diverged
from U.S. norms.
Among them those wit-
nesses is the former U.S. attor-
ney in Atlanta, BJay Pak, who
abruptly resigned after Trump
pressured Georgia state offi-
cials to overturn his presiden-
tial defeat. Trump wanted to
fire Pak as disloyal, but Pak
stepped down after Trump’s
call urging Georgia Secretary
of State Brad Raffensperger to
“find” enough votes to over-
turn Biden’s win in the state
became public.
Authorities arrested 31
members of the white su-
premacist group Patriot Front
near an Idaho pride event Sat-
urday, June 10 after they were
found packed into the back of
a U-Haul truck with riot gear.
The men were standing in-
side the truck wearing khakis,
navy blue shirts and beige hats
with white balaclavas cover-
ing their faces when Coeur
d’Alene police stopped the
U-Haul and began arresting
them on the side of the road.
“They came to riot down-
town,” Coeur d’Alene Police
Chief Lee White said at a
news conference.
All 31 were charged with
conspiracy to riot, a misde-
meanor, White said. The men
were going through the book-
ing process Saturday after-
noon and are scheduled to be
arraigned on Monday, he said.
Based on evidence collected
and documents, authorities
found that the group was
planning to riot in several ar-
eas of downtown, not just the
park, White said.
Arkansas, White said. Only
Police found riot gear, one
one was from Idaho, he said.
smoke grenade, shin guards
The truck was stopped
and shields inside the van,
near where the North Idaho
White said. They wore arm
Pride Alliance was holding
patches and logos on their hats the Coeur d’Alene Pride in the
Park event. Police had stepped
that identified them as mem-
up their presence in the area
bers of Patriot Front, he said.
during the event.
Police learned about the
“It appears these people
U-Haul from a tipster, who
did not come here to engage
reported that “it looked like
in peaceful events,” Kootenai
a little army was loading up
County Sheriff Bob
into the vehicle” in
“It appears Norris told a Coeur
the parking lot of a
Alene Press re-
hotel, White said.
these people d’
porter.
Officials spotted
Patriot Front is de-
the truck soon after
did not come
scribed by the South-
and pulled it over,
here to engage ern Poverty Law
he said.
as “a white na-
Videos of the ar-
in peaceful Center
tionalist hate group”
rest posted on so-
events.”
that formed after the
cial media show the
deadly “Unite the
men kneeling on
— Kootenai
Right” rally in Char-
the grass with their
County Sheriff
lottesville, Virginia in
hands zip-tied be-
Bob Norris
2017.
hind their backs.
“Patriot Front fo-
“Reclaim Amer-
cuses on theatrical rhetoric
ica” was written on the back of
and activism that can be easily
one shirt.
distributed as propaganda for
Police led the men, one by
one, to the front of patrol cars, its chapters across the coun-
took off their masks and then try,” the Southern Poverty
brought them to a police van. Law Center said of the group.
The group’s manifesto calls
Those arrested came from at
least 11 states, including Wash- for the formation of a white
ethnostate in the United
ington, Oregon, Texas, Utah,
States, the Southern Poverty
Colorado, South Dakota, Illi-
Law Center said.
nois, Wyoming, Virginia, and
OREGON
Probe underway into fire
at anti-abortion center
GRESHAM (AP) — Fed-
eral law enforcement is inves-
tigating a fire that broke out
on Friday morning, June 10
at an anti-abortion center in a
suburb east of Portland.
The Bureau of Alcohol, To-
bacco, Firearms and Explo-
sives said on Twitter that they
considered the fire at a First
Image Pregnancy Resource
Center in Gresham to be “sus-
picious in nature.” KOIN-TV
reported that the fire began
at around 3 a.m. on Friday
morning and that the investi-
gation would involve multiple
agencies.
“Gresham Police, Gresham
Fire, ATF, and the FBI are all
involved in the investigation at
this time,” Gresham Fire Bat-
talion Chief Jason McGowan
told the station. “Because it’s
suspicious, in each structure
fire we collect evidence, that
evidence is then sent off to be
processed, and once that pro-
cess is over, we should have
more information.”
Pregnancy resource centers
like the one in Gresham are
clinics that typically provide
free services and counsel cli-
ents against having abortions.
Many are religiously affiliated
and most are not licensed
medical facilities.
The fire comes amid in-
creasing tension and nation-
wide polarization over abor-
tion that has arisen since a
U.S. Supreme Court draft
decision that could overturn
Roe v. Wade leaked in May.
Fire broke out at another an-
ti-abortion center in upstate
New York earlier this week
and police are investigating
a May arson fire at a wom-
en’s health clinic that plans to
open and provide abortions in
Casper, Wyoming.
Last week, the Department
of Homeland Security pub-
lished a memo warning of in-
creasing threats of civil unrest
and violence surrounding the
looming Supreme Court de-
cision.
Morrow County declares emergency over water contamination
BOARDMAN (AP) — Of-
ficials in Oregon’s Morrow
County along the Columbia
River have declared a local state
of emergency after private well
testing showed high levels of
nitrate contamination.
During a Thursday, June
9 special meeting, Morrow
County commissioners voted
3-0 in favor of the measure,
which will allow the county to
take immediate action to pro-
tect drinking water, Oregon
Public Broadcasting reported.
It’s believed to be the first time
an Oregon county has declared
a state of emergency over water
quality issues.
The county is distributing
bottled water and setting up
water distribution trailers in
the small city of Boardman.
Groundwater is the primary
drinking source for residents in
the county but it’s been plagued
by high levels of nitrates. The
state designated Morrow and
adjacent Umatilla counties as
groundwater management ar-
eas more than 30 years ago.
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian, File
Morrow County Commissioner Jim Doherty collects a water sample
from the faucet of Boardman homeowner Tiffany Baldock on May 9,
2022, so a lab can determine if nitrates have contaminated the water.
A committee was formed to
address the issue and identify
activities that contribute to the
contamination.
But state data shows the ni-
trate problem has only gotten
worse.
“It’s been an ongoing issue,”
Morrow County Commis-
sioner Chair Jim Doherty said.
“It’s not something that just hit
us in the last week, and we’ve
been approaching it from lots
of different angles.”
Drinking high levels of ni-
trate can lead to respiratory
infections, thyroid dysfunction
and stomach or bladder can-
cer. It can also cause “blue baby
syndrome,” which decreases
the blood’s capacity to carry
oxygen.
Earlier this year, the Oregon
Department of Environmental
Quality fined the Port of Mor-
row $1.3 million for overapply-
ing 165 tons of nitrogen-rich
wastewater onto agricultural
fields over a four-year period
and failing to monitor the ni-
trate contamination.
The Port of Morrow re-
leased a statement this week
saying it’s considering millions
of dollars in upgrades to re-
duce pollution and is eager to
play a role in finding workable
solutions.
Doherty said he hopes the
declaration will help them ob-
tain money for more home
testing. Doherty has been go-
ing door-to-door with the lo-
cal health department to test
tap water for residents outside
Boardman’s city limits.
So far, he said they’ve tested
about 70 wells that were “high
enough to cause some pretty
severe health issues.”
A team from the nonprofit
organization Oregon Rural Ac-
tion is assisting the county and
has tested tap water in about
60 homes in Boardman and Ir-
rigon. The team found almost
all were above the federal safe
drinking water limit and doz-
ens were five times that limit,
according to Kristin Anderson
Ostrom, the group’s executive
director.
Zaira Sanchez, ORA’s direc-
tor of organizing, said it was
hard to deliver test results.
“The common response
from the community was im-
mediate shock and concern,”
she said.
Sanchez said some families
boil their water, but that could
worsen the problem. She added
some families are already
spending up to $100 a month
purchasing bottled water.
ORA board member and
former DEQ administrator
Mitch Wolgamott, who has
been working with Ander-
son Ostrom and Sanchez, said
this is the first-time elected
officials have stepped up and
highlighted this issue. But he
said the response doesn’t go far
enough.
“That’s addressing the symp-
toms, that doesn’t really ad-
dress the cause of the problem,”
he said. “We’re going to have
to figure out how to either be
putting less nitrogen on the
ground or we’re spreading it
out a lot more.”
The Oregon Office of Emer-
gency Management is coordi-
nating with Morrow County to
meet emergency needs of res-
idents. OEM officials said the
emergency declaration does
not grant immediate access to
state funds or other resources
but does allow the county to
implement its own emergency
procedures.
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