PA Headlines 9/5/21
WASHINGTON (AP) — AP is reporting…President Joe Biden will visit all three 9/11 memorial sites to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and pay his respects to the nearly 3,000 people killed that day. Biden will visit ground zero in New York City, the Pentagon and the memorial outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where United Flight 93 was forced down, the White House said Saturday. He will be accompanied by first lady Jill Biden. Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, for a separate event before joining the president at the Pentagon, the White House said. Harris will travel with her spouse, Doug Emhoff. Biden’s itinerary is similar to the one President Barack Obama followed in 2011 on the 10th anniversary of the attacks. Obama’s visit to New York City coincided with the opening of a memorial at the site where the iconic World Trade Center towers once stood.
Next Saturday’s anniversary falls less than two weeks after the end of the nearly two-decade-long U.S. war in Afghanistan. The war was launched weeks after the 9/11 attacks to retaliate against the al-Qaida plotters and the Taliban, who provided them safe haven. Biden has found support from the public for ending the conflict but has faced sharp criticism, even from allies, for the chaotic evacuation of U.S. troops and allied Afghans during the final two weeks of August. Biden on Friday directed the declassification of certain documents related to the Sept. 11 attacks in a gesture toward victims’ families who have long sought the records in hopes of implicating the Saudi government. The conflict between the government and the families over what classified information could be made public came into the open last month after many relatives, survivors and first responders said they would object to Biden’s participation in 9/11 memorial events if the documents remained classified.
HARRISBURG – Pennsylvania Capital-Star is reporting…Ten months after the November 2020 election, and seven since the results were certified, a Pennsylvania Senate committee expects to launch an investigation into the electoral process next week. And its members are soliciting the public for help. The Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee will hold its first public hearing as part of the investigation on Sept. 9 at the Capitol, its chairman, Sen. Cris Dush, R-Jefferson, said late Thursday. A time and hearing room have yet to be announced. As part of the probe into the 2020 general and 2021 primary elections, the 11-member panel has invited the public to share “any potential violations of election law or voting irregularities they have witnessed personally.” “This evidence will be critical in the committee’s efforts to identify gaps in our elections that can be addressed by the General Assembly,” a statement on the web page to submit testimony reads.
The online form, which asks for an individual’s name, address, and contact information, is intended for Pennsylvanians who witnessed election law violations. The committee could ask those who submit information to sign an affidavit and testify under oath at a future hearing. The committee also invited Department of State officials to testify at the hearing, specifically about “last-minute guidance provided to counties and its impact on the 2020 General Election.” The agency has oversight of Pennsylvania elections. Two post-election reviews — a statistical sampling required by law and a risk-limiting audit — were conducted after the 2020 election in Pennsylvania. Sixty-three out of the commonwealth’s 67 counties participated in the risk-limiting audit pilot, and neither assessment found evidence of fraud.
Certified results show that former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election by 80,555 votes in Pennsylvania. In the same cycle, Republicans triumphed in state races — maintaining their legislative majorities in Harrisburg. But a months-long campaign, launched by Trump and embraced by supporters, has sought to cast doubt on election integrity. And despite the absence of any evidence proving claims of fraud, the Pennsylvania Senate GOP has decided to investigate. “Sometimes Republicans win. Sometimes Democrats win,” Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, R-Centre, told the Capital-Star last month. “We all move on. But if you don’t have faith in the results, you fracture your democracy.” Corman, who has noted election “irregularities” rather than alleging fraud, tapped Dush to lead the review in August after Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Franklin, “retreated,” citing a “weakened and diminished” cause.
Although the restructuring sparked an internal GOP feud, Mastriano — who was still without a Capitol staff as of Tuesday — continues to sit on the Senate committee responsible for the investigation. Mastriano, who said he has “little confidence that a real investigation will ever take place” after his demotion, has stayed quiet about his role in the forthcoming review. However, he has continued to rail against Corman and the “swamp” in Harrisburg. “He better make it right before he has a falling out with enough of the other senators out there,” Mastriano said of Corman during a since-deleted Facebook Live on Tuesday.
