By: NEXSTAR MEDIA WIRE

The death of a Capitol Police officer brings the toll from Jan 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol to 5 people.

The rampage that has shocked the world and left the country on edge forced the resignations of three top Capitol security officials over the failure to stop the breach. It has led lawmakers to demand a review of operations and an FBI briefing over what they called a “Terrorist Attack.” And it is prompting a broader reckoning over President Donald Trump’s tenure in office and what comes next for a torn nation.

Protesters were urged by Trump during a rally near the White House earlier Wednesday January The 6th to head to Capitol Hill, where lawmakers were scheduled to confirm Biden’s presidential victory. A mob swiftly broke through police barriers, smashed windows and paraded through the halls, sending lawmakers into hiding.

Here’s what we know about the lives that were lost:

Officer Brian Sicknick, 42

The U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement that Officer Brian D. Sicknick was injured “while physically engaging with protesters” during the Jan 6 riot. He was the fifth person to die because of the Capitol protest and violence.

During the struggle at the Capitol, Sicknick, 42, was hit in the head with a fire extinguisher, two law enforcement officials said. The officials could not discuss the ongoing investigation publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

His family said in a statement that Sicknick wanted to be a police officer his entire life. He served in the New Jersey Air National Guard before joining the Capitol Police in 2008.

“Many details regarding The events and the direct causes of Brian’s injuries remain unknown, and our family asks the public and the press to respect our wishes in not making Brian’s passing a political issue,” the family said.

Ashli Babbitt, 35

Capitol Police identified Ashli Babbitt, 35, of San Diego, as the woman who was fatally shot by an unidentified officer. Bystander video shows she was trying to climb through the broken window of a barricaded doorway inside the Capitol when the officer fired.

Babbitt, an Air Force veteran who identified as a Libertarian and supporter of the Second Amendment, frequently posted unsubstantiated views about election fraud by the president and his most extreme supporters — activists whose conspiracy theories and unflinching support for Trump have attracted large online following.

On social media, Babbitt often ranted against the president’s frequent targets — illegal immigration, government mandates to contain the coronavirus and Trump’s critics.

Her Twitter account promoted mainstream conservative views but also included references to the QAnon conspiracy theory, which centers on the baseless belief that Trump has been secretly fighting deep state enemies and a cabal of Satan-worshipping cannibals operating a child sex trafficking ring.

Kevin Greeson, 55

Kevin Greeson was from Athens, Alabama. His family says the 55-year-old had a heart attack amid the unrest Jan 6, They described him as a supporter of President Trump’s but denied that he condoned violence.

His wife, Kristi Greeson, emailed a statement to WKRG News 5 saying, “he was excited to be there to experience this event — he was not there to participate in violence or rioting, nor did he condone such actions.” She went on to say he had a history of high blood pressure.

“Our family is devastated. We are thankful for all of the thoughts and prayers and appreciate privacy at this time as we grieve,” she wrote. “Kevin was a wonderful father and husband who loved life. He loved to ride motorcycles, he loved his job and his coworkers, and he loved his dogs.”

Benjamin Philips, 50

Benjamin Philips, 50, of Schuylkill County, Pa., died of a stroke, according to a report in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

NBC News reports Philips was a computer programmer who founded a website for Trump supporters. According to the report, the website helped coordinate rides for people to head to Washington for January 6 event.

“As my children are grieving and processing the shocking events, I respectfully request privacy,” his ex-wife, Nicole Mun, said in a statement.

Rosanne Boyland, 34

Rosanne Boyland also died due to a medical emergency. According to Atlanta News Station WXIA first responders performed CPR on her after she collapsed on January 6 that evening.

WXIA spoke to her family who described her as a “a really happy, wonderful person.”

They say she was a passionate supporter of Trump and there was a family argument over whether she should attend the events in Washington. Family members told WXIA Boyland got wrapped up in dangerous conspiracy theories and political beliefs.

Her family said Boyland was an aunt to two girls who adored her.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

By: JULIA JACOBO

Many who participated in the chaos at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday came straight from an event held by President Donald Trump.

Trump’s “Save America Rally” included the president telling supporters to “stop the steal” of the election urging them to head to the Capitol to demonstrate against Congress certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. Among the crowd’s battle cries was, “Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump!”

Trump spoke at the event for nearly an hour at the Ellipse, a park near the White House. After he spoke, thousands of attendees, many of them without masks, marched toward Capitol Hill as federal law enforcement vehicles raced to beat them there.

Here’s what Trump said at his rally:

Media will not show the magnitude of this crowd even I when I turned on today, I looked, and I saw thousands of people here, but you don’t see hundreds of thousands of people behind you because they don’t want to show that. We have hundreds of thousands of people here, and I just want them to be recognized by the fake news media. Turn your cameras, please, and show what is really happening out here because these people are not going to take it any longer, they’re not going to take it any longer.

Go ahead, turn your cameras, please. Would you show they came from all over the world actually, but they came from all over our country. I just really want to see what they do. I just want to see how they cover it. I’ve never seen anything like it, but it would be really great if we could be covered fairly by the media. The media is the biggest problem we have as far as I’m concerned single biggest problem.

The fake news and the big tech, big tech, is now coming into their own. We beat them four years ago, we surprised them. We took him by surprise and this year they rigged an election, they rigged it like they have never rigged an election before, and by the way, last night, they didn’t do a bad job either, if you notice. I am honest, and I just again, I want to thank you. It’s just a great honor to have this kind of crowd and to be before you and hundreds of thousands of American patriots who are committed to the honesty of our elections and the integrity of our glorious Republic.

All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by a bold and radical left Democrats which is what they are doing and stolen by the fake news media. That is what they have done and what they are doing. We will never give up. We will never concede. It doesn’t happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved.

Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore, and that is what this is all about.

And to use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with, we will stop the steal.

Today I will lay out just some of the evidence proving that we won this election and we won it by a landslide. This was not a close election. You know I say sometimes jokingly, but there’s no joke about it. I have been into elections. I won them both and the second one I won much bigger than the first, okay?

Almost 75 million people voted for our campaign, the most of any incumbent president by far in the history of our country; 12 million more than four years ago.

And I was told by the real pollsters; we do have real pollsters. They know that we were going to do well and we were going to win. What I was told if I went from 63 million, which we had four years ago to 66 million, there was no chance of losing. Well, we didn’t go to 66, we went to 75 million, and they say we lost. We didn’t lose. And by the way, does anybody believe that Joe had 80 million votes? Does anybody believe that?

He had 80 million computer votes. It’s a disgrace. There’s never been anything like that. You can take third world countries just take a look take third world countries their elections are more honest than what we have been going through in this country. It’s a disgrace. It’s a disgrace. Even when you look at last night, they were all running around like chickens with their heads cut off with boxes, and nobody knows what the hell is going on. There’s never been anything like this. We will not let them silence your voices. We’re not going to let it happen.

Not going to let it happen.

CROWD: Fight for Trump. Fight for Trump. Fight for Trump. Fight for Trump. Fight for Trump. Fight for Trump.

TRUMP: Thank you.

And I would love to have if those tens of thousands of people would be allowed the military, the Secret Service and we want to thank you and the police and law enforcement great you’re doing a great job, but I would love it if they could be allowed to come up with us. Is that possible? Can you just let them, please? And Rudy, you did a great job.

He’s got guts. You know what? he’s got guts, unlike a lot of people in the Republican Party, he’s got guts he fights, he fights. And I will tell you thank you very much, John, fantastic job. I watched–that’s a tough act to follow those two. John is one of the most brilliant lawyers in the country and he looked at this, and he said what an absolute disgrace that this could be happening to our Constitution and he looked at Mike Pence, and I hope Mike is going to do the right thing. I hope so. I hope so because if Mike Pence does the right thing, we when the election.

All he has to do–all–this is–this is from the number one or certainly one of the top constitutional lawyers in our country he has the absolute right to do it; we’re supposed to protect our country support our country, support our Constitution and protect our Constitution. States want to revote, the states got defrauded. They were given false information, they voted on it. Now they want to recertify; they want it back. All Vice President Pence has to do is send it back to the states to recertify, and we become president, and you are the happiest people.

And I actually I just spoke to Mike. I said, Mike, that doesn’t take courage, what takes courage is to do nothing. That takes courage, and then we are stuck with a president who lost the election by a lot, and we have to live with that for four more years. We’re just not going to let that happen. Many of you have traveled from all across the nation to be here, and I want to thank you for the extraordinary love. That is what it is; there’s never been a movement like this ever, ever for the extraordinary love for this amazing country. And this amazing movement. Thank you.

By the way, this goes all the way back past the Washington Monument. Do you believe this? Look at this. Unfortunately, they gave the press the prime seats. I can’t stand that. No, but you look at that behind. I wish they would flip those cameras and look behind you. That is the most amazing site.

When they make a mistake, you get to see it on television, amazing. Amazing. All of the way back and don’t worry. We will not take the name off the Washington Monument. We will not. Cancel culture. They wanted to get rid of the Jefferson Memorial, either take it down or just put somebody else in there. I don’t think that’s going to happen. It damn well better not, even though with this administration if this happens, it could happen. You will see some really bad things happen. They will knock out Lincoln, too, by the way. They have been taking his statute down, but then we signed a little law you hurt our monuments, you hurt our heroes, you go to jail for ten years, and everything stopped. You notice that it stopped?

It all stopped, and they could use Rudy back in New York City, Rudy.

They could use you. Your city is going to hell. They want Rudy Giuliani back in New York. We will get a little younger version of Rudy. Is that okay, Rudy? We’re gathered together in the heart of our nation’s capital for one very, very basic and simple reason, to save our democracy.

You know most candidates on election evening, and of course, this thing goes on so long they still don’t have any idea what the votes are. We still have congressional seats under review. They have no idea. They have totally lost control; they have used the pandemic as a way of defrauding the people in a proper election, but you know, you know when you see this and when you see what is happening number one they all say, sir, we will never let it happen again. I said that’s good, but what about eight weeks ago?

You know they try and get you to go they say, sir, in four years you are guaranteed. I said I’m not interested right now. Do me a favor. Go back eight weeks. I want to go back eight weeks. Let’s go back eight weeks.

We want to go back and we want to get this right because we’re going to have somebody in there that should not be in there and our country will be destroyed and we’re not going to stand for that.

For years, Democrats have gotten away with election fraud and weak Republicans. And that’s what they are. There’s so many weak Republicans. And we have great ones. Jim Jordan and some of these guys, they are out there fighting. The House guys are fighting, but it’s–it’s incredible. Many of the Republicans, I helped them get in. I helped them get elected. I helped Mitch get elected. I helped–

I could name 24 of them, let’s say. I won’t bore you with it. And then all of a sudden, you have something like this. There is like oh, gee, maybe I’ll talk to the president sometime later. No, it’s amazing. The weak Republicans. They’re pathetic Republicans, and that’s what happens.

If this happened to the Democrats, there’d be held all over the country going on. There’d be hell all over the country. But just remember this, you’re stronger, you’re smarter. You’ve got more going than anybody and they try and demean everybody having to do with us and you’re the real people. You’re the people that built this nation. You’re not the people that tore down our nation.

The weak Republicans–and that’s it, I really believe it. I think I’m going to use the term. The weak Republicans. You’ve got a lot of them and you’ve got a lot of great ones. But you’ve got a lot of weak ones. They’ve turned a blind eye.

Even as Democrats enacted policies that shipped away our jobs, weakend our military, threw open our borders, and put America last. Did you see the other day where Joe Biden said I want to get rid of the America first policy. What’s that all about? Get rid of–how do you say I want to get rid of America first? Even if you’re going to do it, don’t talk about it, right?

Unbelievable, what we have to go through. What we have to go through–and you have to get your people to fight. And if they don’t fight, we have to primary the hell out of the ones that don’t fight. We primary them.

We’re going to–we’re going to let you know who they are. I can already tell you, frankly. But this year, using the pretext of the China virus and the scam of mail in ballots, Democrats attempted the most brazen and outrageous election theft. And there’s never been anything like this. It’s a pure theft in American history. Everybody knows it.

That election, our election was over at 10:00 in the evening. We’re leading Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia. By hundreds of thousands of votes and then late in the evening or early in the morning, boom. These explosions of bull—- and all of the sudden–

All of a sudden, it started to happen.

Don’t forget, when Romney got beat–Romney. Did you see his–

I wonder if he enjoyed his flight in last night.

But when Romney got beat, you know, he stands up like your more typical–well, I’d like to congratulate the victor. The victor. Who was the victor, Mitt? I’d like to congratulate. They don’t go in and look at the facts. Oh, I don’t know. You’ve got–he got slaughtered, probably. Maybe it was okay, maybe it was–that’s what happened.

But we look at the facts and our election was so corrupt that in the history of this country, we’ve never seen anything like it. You could go all the way back. You know, America is blessed with elections. All over the world they talk about our elections. You know what the world’s says about us now? They said we don’t have free and fair elections.

And you know what else? We don’t have a free and fair press. Our media is not free, it’s not fair. It’s suppresses thought. It suppresses speech, and it’s become the enemy of the people. It’s become the enemy of the people. It’s a–it’s the biggest problem we have in this country. No third world countries would even attempt to do what we caught them doing. And you’ll hear about that in just a few minutes. Republicans are–

Republicans are constantly fighting like a boxer with his hands tied behind his back. It’s like a boxer. And we want to be so nice. We want to be so respectful of everybody, including bad people. And we’re going to have to fight much harder. And Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us. And if he doesn’t, that will be a sad day for our country because you’re sworn to uphold our constitution.

Now it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy. And after this, we’re going to walk down and I’ll be there with you. We’re going to walk down–

We’re going to walk down. Anyone you want, but I think right here, we’re going to walk down to the Capitol–

And we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them.

Because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong.

We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated. Lawfully slated.

I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard. Today, we will see whether Republicans stand strong for integrity of our elections. But whether or not they stand strong for our country, our country. Our country has been under siege for a long time. Far longer than this four year period.

We set it on a much straighter course, a much–and we–I thought, you know, four more years. I thought it would be easy. We created the greatest economy in history. We rebuilt our military. We get you the biggest tax cuts in history, right? We got the biggest regulation cuts. There is no president, whether it’s four years, eight years, or in one case more got anywhere near the regulation cuts.

It used to take 20 years to get hey highway approved. Now we’re down to two. I want to get it down to one, but we’re down to two. And it may get rejected for environmental or safety reasons, but we got it down, the safety. We created Space Force. We–and look what we did. Our military has been totally rebuilt. So we create Space Force, which by and of itself is a major achievement for an administration. And with us, it’s one of so many different things.

Right to try. Everybody know about right to try. We did things that nobody ever thought possible. We took care of our vets. Our vets. The VA now has the highest rating. 91 percent. The highest rating that it’s had from the beginning. 91 percent approval rate rating. Always, you watch the VA. It was on television. Every night, people living in a horrible, horrible manner. We got that done and we got accountability done.

We got it so that now in the VA, you don’t have to wait for four weeks, six weeks, eight weeks, four months to see a doctor. If you can’t get a doctor, you go outside, you get the doctor, you have him taken care of, and we pay the doctor. And we’ve not only made life wonderful for so many people, we’ve saved tremendous amounts of money far, secondarily. But we’ve saved a lot of money.

And now we have the right to fire bad people in the VA. We had 9,000 people they treated our veterans horribly. In prime time, they would not have treated our veterans badly. But they treated our veterans horribly and we have what’s called the account–VA Accountability Act. And the accountability says if we see somebody in there that doesn’t treat our vets well or they steal, they rob, they do things badly, we say Joe, you’re fired. Get out of here.

Before, you couldn’t do that. You couldn’t do that before. So we’ve taken care of things. We’ve done things like nobody’s ever thought possible, and that’s part of the reason that many people don’t like us because we’ve done too much. But we’ve done it quickly.

And we were going to sit home and watch a big victory and everybody had us down for a victory. It was going to be great. And now we’re out here fighting. I said to somebody I was going to take a few days and relax after our big electoral victory. 10:00, it was over and I was going to take a few days.

And I can say this. Since our election, I believe–which was such a catastrophe when I watched, and even these guys knew what happened. They know what happened. They’re saying wow. Pennsylvania is insurmountable. Wow. Wisconsin. Look at the big leads we had, right?

Even you know, the press said we’re going to lose Wisconsin by 17 points. Even though the press said Ohio’s going to be close, we set a record. Florida’s going to be close. We set a record. Texas is going to be close.

Texas is going to be close. We set a record. And, we set a record with Hispanic, with the black community. We set a record with everybody.

Today, we see a very important event, though, because right over there, right there, we see the event that’s going to take place and I’m going to be watching because history is going to be made. We’re going to see whether or not we have great and courageous leaders or whether or not we have leaders that should be ashamed of themselves throughout history, throughout eternity. They’ll be ashamed.

And, you know what? If they do the wrong thing, we should never, ever forget that they did. Never forget.

We should never, ever forget. With only three of the seven states in question, we win the presidency of the United States. And, by the way, it’s much more important today than it was 24 hours ago because–and don’t– I spoke to David Perdue. What a great person. And, Kelly Loeffler, two great people.

But, it was a setup and you know, I said we have no backline anymore. The only backline, the only line of demarcation, the only line that we have is the veto of the president of the United States. So, this is now, what we’re doing, a far more important election than it was two days ago.

I want to thank the more than 140 members of the House. Those are warriors. They’re over there working like you’ve never seen before, studying, talking, actually going all the way back studying the roots of the Constitution because they know we have the right to send a bad vote that was illegally gotten.

They gave these people bad things to vote for and they voted because what did they know. And, then when they found out a few weeks later, again, it took them four years to devise this great–and the only unhappy person in the United States, single most unhappy, is Hillary Clinton because she said, “Why didn’t you do this for me four years ago?”

“Why didn’t you do this for me four years ago? Change the votes, 10,000 in Michigan. You could have changed the whole thing.” But, she’s not too happy. You notice, she–you don’t see her anymore. What happened? Where’s Hillary? Where is she?

But, I want to thank all of those congressmen and women. I also want to thank our 13 most courageous members of the U.S. Senate, Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Ron Johnson–

–Senator Josh Hawley, Kelly Loeffler. And, Kelly Loeffler, I’ll tell you, she has been–she has been so great. She works so hard, so let’s give her and David a little special hand, because it was rigged against them. Let’s give her and David–Kelly Loeffler, David Perdue.

They fought a good race. They never had a shot. That equipment should never have been allowed to be used. And, I was telling these people, “Don’t let them use this stuff.” Marsha Blackburn, terrific person, Mike Braun, Indiana, Steve Daines, great guy, Bill Hagerty, John Kennedy, James Lankford, Cynthia Lummis, Tommy Tuberville, the coach, and Roger Marshall. We want to thank them. Senators have stepped up. We want to thank them.

I actually think, though, it takes, again, more courage not to step up and I think a lot of those people are going to find that out. And, you better start looking at your leadership because your leadership has led you down the tubes.

You know, “We don’t want to give $2,000 to people. We want to give them $600.” Oh, great. How does that play politically? Pretty good? And, this has nothing to do with politics, but how does it play politically?

China destroyed these people. We didn’t destroy them. China destroyed them, totally destroyed them. “We want to give them $600,” and they just wouldn’t change. I said, “Give them $2,000, we’ll pay it back, we’ll pay it back fast. You already owe $26 trillion. Give them a couple of bucks. Let them live. Give them a couple of bucks.”

And, some of the people here disagree with me on that, but I–I just say, look, you’ve got to let people live. And, how does that play, though? Okay, number one, it’s the right thing to do. But, how does that play politically?

I think it’s the primary reason–one of the primary reasons, the other was just pure cheating. That was the primary–super primary reason. But, you can’t do that. You’ve got to use your head.

As you know, the media has constantly asserted the outrageous lie that there was no evidence of widespread fraud. You ever see these people? “While there’s no evidence of fraud.” Oh, really? Well, I’m going to read you pages. I hope you don’t get bored listening to it. Promise? Don’t get bored listening to it, all those hundreds of thousands of people back there.

Move them up, please. Yeah. All they–all these people, don’t get bored. Don’t get angry at me because you’re going to get bored, because it’s so much. The American people do not believe the corrupt fake news anymore. They have ruined their reputation.

But, you know, it used to be that they’d argue with me. I’d fight. So, I’d fight, they’d fight, I’d fight, they’d fight, bump, bump, you’d believe me, you’d believe them. Somebody comes out. You know, they had their point of view, I had my point of view. But, you’d have an argument.

Now, what they do is they go silent. It’s called suppression and that’s what happens in a communist country. That’s what they do. They suppress. You don’t fight with them anymore unless it’s a bad story. If they have a little bad story about me, they make it ten times worse and it’s a major headline.

But, Hunter Biden, they don’t talk about him. What happened to Hunter? Where’s Hunter? Where is Hunter? They don’t talk about him.

Now, watch, all the sets will go off. Well, they can’t do that because they get good ratings. Their ratings are too good.

Now, where’s Hunter, you know? And–and how come Joe was allowed to give $1 billion of money to get rid of the prosecutor in Ukraine? How does that happen? I’d ask you that question. How does that happen?

Can you imagine if I said that? If I said that, it would be a whole different ballgame. And, how come Hunter gets 3 and a half million dollars from the mayor of Moscow’s wife and gets hundreds of thousands of dollars to sit on an energy board even though he admits he has no knowledge of energy and millions of dollars upfront? And, how come they go into China and they leave with billions of dollars to manage?

“Have you managed money before?” “No, I haven’t.” “Oh, that’s good, here’s about $3 billion.”

No, they don’t talk about that. No, we have a corrupt media. They’ve gone silent. They’ve gone dead. I now realize how good it was, if you go back ten years. I realize how good–even though I didn’t necessarily love them, I realize how good–it was like a cleansing motion, right?

But, we don’t have that anymore. We don’t have a fair media anymore. It’s suppression and you have to be very careful with that, and they’ve lost all credibility in this country.

We will not be intimidated into accepting the hoaxes and the lies that we’ve been forced to believe. Over the past several weeks, we’ve amassed overwhelming evidence about a fake election. This is the presidential election. Last night was a little bit better because of the fact that we had a lot of eyes watching one specific state, but they cheated like hell anyway. You have one of the dumbest governors in the United States.

And, you know, when I endorsed him at–I didn’t know this guy–at the request of David Perdue. He said, “A friend of mine is running for governor,” “What’s his name?” and you know the rest. He was in fourth place, fifth place. I don’t know, he was way–he was doing poorly. I endorsed him. He went like a rocket ship and he won.

And, then I had to beat Stacey Abrams with this guy, Brian Kemp. I had to beat Stacey Abrams and I had to beat Oprah, used to be a friend of mine. You know, I was on her last show, her last week. She picked the five outstanding people. I don’t think she thinks that anymore.

Once I ran for president, I didn’t notice too many calls coming in from Oprah. Believe it or not, she used to like me. But, I was one of the five outstanding people and I had to campaign against Michelle Obama and Barack Hussein Obama, against Stacey.

And, I had Brian Kemp who weighs 130 pounds. He said he played offensive line in football. I’m trying to figure that out. I’m still trying to figure that out. He said that the other night. “I was an offensive lineman.” I’m saying, “Really? That must have been a very small team.”

But, I look at that and I look at what’s happened and he turned out to be a disaster. This stuff happens. You know, look, I’m not happy with the Supreme Court. They love to rule against me. I picked three people. I fought like hell for them. One in particular I fought.

They all said, “Sir, cut him loose, he’s killing the senators.” You know, very loyal senators. They’re very loyal people.

Sir, cut him loose. He is killing us, sir. Cut him loose, sir. I will never–I must have gotten half of these senators. I said no, I can’t do that. It’s unfair to him, and it’s unfair to the family. He didn’t do anything wrong. They made up stories. They were all made up stories. He didn’t do anything wrong. Cut him loose, sir. I said no, I won’t do that. We got him through, and you know what, they couldn’t give a damn. They couldn’t give a damn. Let him rule the right way, but it almost seems that they are all going out of their way to hurt all of us and to hurt our country, to hurt our country.

You know I read a story in one of the newspapers recently how I control the three Supreme Court justices. I control them. They are puppets. I read it about Bill Barr that he is my personal attorney, that he will do anything for me and I said you know it really is genius because what they do is that and it makes it really impossible for them to ever give you a victory because all of the sudden Bill Barr changed if you hadn’t noticed. I like Bill Barr, but he changed because he didn’t want to be considered my personal attorney.

And the Supreme Court they rule against me so much do you know why because the story is I haven’t spoken to any of them, any of them since virtually they got in, but the story is that they are my puppet, right? That they are puppets, and now the only way they can get out of that because they hate that; it’s not good on the social circuit, and the only way they get out is to rule against Trump, so let’s rule against Trump, and they do that. So I want to congratulate them, but it shows you the media is genius. In fact, probably if I was the media, I would do it the same way I hate to say it, but we have got to get them straightened out. Today for the sake of our democracy, for the sake of our Constitution, and for the sake of our children, we lay out the case for the entire world to hear. You want to hear it?

In every single swing state local officials, state officials almost all Democrats made illegal and unconstitutional changes to election procedures without the mandated approvals by the state legislatures that these changes paved the way for fraud on a scale never seen before, and I think we would go a long way outside of our country when I say that. So just in a nutshell, you can’t make a change on voting for a federal election unless the state legislature approves it. No judge can do it; nobody can do it, only a legislature.

So as an example, in Pennsylvania or whatever, you have a Republican legislature, you have a Democrat mayor, and you have a lot of Democrats all over the place; they go to the legislature, the legislature laughs at them says we’re not going to do that they say thank you very much and they go and make the changes themselves, they do it anyway, and that is totally illegal, that is totally illegal. You can’t do that.

In Pennsylvania, the Democrat secretary of state and the Democrat state Supreme Court justices illegally abolished the signature verification requirements just 11 days prior to the election. So think of what they did. No longer is there signature verification. That’s okay. We want voter ID, by the way, but no longer is there signature verification. 11 days before the election, they say we don’t want it. Do you know why they don’t want them? Because they want to cheat, that’s the only reason. Who would even think of that? We don’t want to verify a signature.

There were over 205,000 more ballots counted in Pennsylvania. Now think of this, you had 205,000 more ballots than you had voters. That means you had to–where did they come from? Do you know where they came from? Somebody’s imagination whatever they need it. So in Pennsylvania, you had 205,000 more votes than you had voters, and it’s–the number is actually much greater than that now. That was as of a week ago, and this is a mathematical impossibility unless you want to say it’s a total fraud. So if Pennsylvania was defrauded.

Over 8,000 ballots in Pennsylvania were cast by people whose names and dates of birth match individuals who died in 2020 and prior to the election. Think of that. Dead people, lots of dead people, thousands, and some dead people actually requested an application. That bothers me even more. Not only are they voting, they want an application to vote; one of them was 29 years ago died. It’s incredible.

Over 14,000 ballots were cast by out-of-state voters, so these are voters that don’t live in the state, and by the way, these numbers are what they call outcome-determinative, meaning these numbers far surpass–I lost by a very little bit. These numbers are massive, massive. More than 10,000 votes in Pennsylvania were illegally counted even though they were received after election day. In other words, they were received after election day. Let’s count them anyway and what they did in many cases is they did fraud, they took the date, and they moved it back so that it no longer is after election day.

And more than 60,000 ballots in Pennsylvania were reported received back, they got back before they were ever supposedly mailed out. In other words, you got the ballot back before you mailed it, which is also logically and logistically impossible, right? Think of that one. You got that ballot back. Let’s send the ballots. Oh, they’ve already been sent. But we got the ballot back before they were sent. I don’t think that’s too good, right?

25,000 ballots in Pennsylvania were requested by nursing home residents, all in a single giant batch, not legal, indicating an enormous illegal ballot harvesting operation. You are not allowed to do it. It’s against the law. The day before the election, the state of Pennsylvania reported the number of absentee ballots that had been sent out, yet this number was suddenly and drastically increased by 400,000 people. It was increased; nobody knows where it came from by 400,000 ballots one day after the election. It remains totally unexplained. They said, well, we can’t figure that. Now that’s many, many times what it would take to overthrow the state, just that one element, 400,000 ballots appeared from nowhere right after the election.

By the way, Pennsylvania has now seen all of this. They didn’t know because it was so quick they had a vote, they voted, but now they see all of this stuff, it has all come to light. It doesn’t happen that fast. And they want to recertify their votes. They want them recertified, but the only way that can happen is if Mike Pence agrees to send it back. Mike Pence has to agree to send it back.

Send it back. Send it back. Send it back. Send it back. Send it back. Send it back.

And many people in Congress want it sent back. Think of what you are doing. Let’s say you don’t do it somebody says well, we have to obey the Constitution and you are because you are protecting our country, and you are protecting the Constitution, so you are but think of what happens.

Let’s say there are stiffs and they are stupid people and they say well, we really have no choice even though Pennsylvania and other states want to redo their votes, they want to see the numbers, they only have the numbers go very quickly and they want to redo their legislature because many of these votes were taken as I said because it wasn’t approved by their legislature you know that in itself is legal and then you have the scam and that is all of the things that we are talking about.

But think of this if you don’t do that that means you will have a president of the United States for four years with his wonderful son, you will have a president who lost all of these states, or you will have a president to put it another way who was voted on by a bunch of stupid people who lost all of these states. You will have an illegitimate president. That is what you will have, and we can’t let that happen. These are the facts that you won’t hear from the fake news media. It’s all part of the suppression effort. They don’t want to talk about it. They don’t want to talk about it.

In fact, when I started talking about that, I guarantee you a lot of the television sets and a lot of those cameras went off, and that’s a lot of cameras back there. But a lot of them went off, but these are the things you don’t hear about, you don’t hear what you just heard, and I’m going to go over a few more states, but you don’t hear of the people who want to deceive you and demoralize you and control you big tech media just like the suppression polls that said we are going to lose Wisconsin by 17 points. Well, we won Wisconsin. They don’t have it that way because they just buy a little sliver, but they had me down the day before. Washington Post ABC poll down 17 points. I called up a real pollster. I said, what is that? Sir, that’s called a suppression poll.

I think you are going to win Wisconsin, sir. I said, “But why don’t they make it four or five points,” because then people vote. But when you’re down 17, they say hey, I’m not going to waste my time. I love the president, but there’s no way. Despite that–Despite that, we won Wisconsin. It’s going to see–I mean, you’ll see.

But that’s called suppression because a lot of people when they see that–it’s very interesting. This pollster said, “Sir, if you’re down three, four, five people vote. When you go down 17, they say let’s save–let’s go and have dinner and let’s watch the presidential defeat tonight on television, darling.”

And just like the radical left tries to blacklist you on social media–every time I put out a tweet that’s–even if it’s totally correct, totally correct, I get a flag. I get a flag. And they also don’t let you get out. You know, on Twitter, it’s very hard to come on to my account. It’s very hard to get out a message. They don’t let the message get out nearly like they should.

But I’ve had many people say I can’t get on your Twitter. I don’t care about Twitter. Twitter is bad news. They are all bad news. But you know what? If you want to–if you want to get out a message and if you want to go through big tech, social media, they are really–if you’re a conservative, if you’re a Republican, if you have a big voice, I guess they call it shadow ban, right? Shadow ban. They shadow ban you and it should be illegal. I’ve been telling these Republicans get rid of Section 230.

And for some reason, Mitch and the group, they don’t want to put it in there and they don’t realize that that’s going to be the end of the Republican Party as we know it, but it’s never going to be the end of us. Never.

Let them get out. Let–let the weak ones get out. This is a time for strength. They also want to indoctrinate your children in school by teaching them things that aren’t so. They want to indoctrinate your children. It’s all part of a comprehensive assault on our democracy and the American people are finally standing up and saying no. This crowd is, again, a testament to it.

I did no advertising. I did nothing. You do have some groups that are big supporters. I want to thank that. Amy and everybody. We have some incredible supporters. Incredible. But we didn’t do anything. This just happened. Two months ago, we had a massive crowd come down to Washington. I said what are they there for? Sir, they’re there for you. We had nothing to do with it.

These groups are formed–they’re forming all over the United States. And we’ve got to remember, in a year from now, you’re going to start working on Congress and we’ve got to get rid of the week congresspeople, the ones that aren’t any good, the Liz Cheney’s of the world. We’ve got to get rid of them. We’ve got to get rid.

You know, she never wants a soldier brought home. 20–I brought a lot of our soldiers home. I don’t know. Some might like it. They’re in countries that nobody even knows the name. Nobody knows where they are. They’re dying. They’re great, but they’re dying. They are losing their arms, their legs, their face. I brought them back home. Largely back home.

Afghanistan, Iraq. Remember I used to say in the old days, don’t go in Iraq. But if you go in, keep the oil. We didn’t keep the oil. So stupid. So stupid, these people. And Iraq has billions and billions of dollars now in the bank. And what did we do? We did get nothing. We never get–but we do, actually. We kept the oil here. We kept–we did good.

We got rid of the ISIS caliphate. We got rid of plenty of different things. Everybody knows and the rebuilding of our military in three years, people said it couldn’t be done and it was all made in the USA. All made in the USA. Best equipment in the world.

In Wisconsin, corrupt, Democrat run cities deployed more than 500 illegal unmanned, unsecured drop boxes, which collected a minimum of 91,000 unlawful votes. It was razor thin, the loss. This one thing alone is much more than we would need, but there are many things.

They have these lock boxes. And you know, they pick them up and they disappear for two days. People would say where’s that box? They’d disappeared. Nobody even knew where the hell it was. In addition, over 170,000 absentee votes were counted in Wisconsin without a valid absentee ballot application. So they had a vote, but they had no application and that’s illegal in Wisconsin. Meaning, those votes were blatantly done in opposition to state law and they came 100 percent from Democrat areas such as Milwaukee and Madison. 100 percent.

In Madison, at 17,000 votes were deposited in so called human drop boxes. You know what that is, right? Where operatives stuff thousands of unsecured ballots into duffel bags on park benches across the city in complete defiance of cease and desist letters from state legislature. The state legislatures said don’t do it. They’re the only ones that could approve it.

They gave tens of thousands of votes. They came in duffel bags. Where the hell did they come from? According to eyewitness testimony, Postal Service workers in Wisconsin were also instructed to illegally backdate approximately 100,000 ballots. The margin of difference in Wisconsin was less than 20,000 votes. Each one of these things alone wins us the state. Great state. We love the state. We won the state.

In Georgia, your secretary of state who I can’t believe this guy is a Republican. He loves recording telephone conversations. You know, that was a–I thought it was a great conversation, personally. So did a lot of other–people love that conversation because it says what’s going on. These people are crooked. They are 100 percent–in my opinion, one of the most corrupt.

Between your governor and your secretary of state and now you have it again last night. Just take a look at what happened. What a mess. And the Democrat party operators operatives entered into an illegal and unconstitution–unconstitutional settlement agreement that drastically weakens signature verification and other election security procedures.

Stacey Abrams. She took them to lunch. And I beat her two years ago with a bad candidate, Brian Kemp. But they took–the Democrats took the Republicans to lunch because the secretary of state had no clue what the hell was happening unless he did have a clue. That’s interesting. Maybe he was with the other side.

But we’ve been trying to get verifications of signatures in Fulton County. They won’t let us do it. The only reason they won’t is because we’ll find things in the hundreds of thousands. Why wouldn’t they let us verify signatures at Fulton County, which is known for being very corrupt? They won’t do it. They go to some other County where you would live.

I said that’s not the problem. The problem is Fulton County, home of Stacey Abrams. She did a good job. I congratulate her, but it was done in such a way that we can’t let this stuff happen. We won’t have a country if it happens. As a result, Georgia’s absentee ballot rejection rate was more than 10 times lower than previous levels because the criteria was so off.

48 counties in Georgia with thousands and thousands of votes rejected zero ballots. There wasn’t one ballot. In other words, in a year in which more mail in ballots were sent than ever before and more people were voting by mail for the first time, their rejection rate was drastically lower than it had ever been before.

The only way this can be explained as if tens of thousands of illegitimate votes were added to the tally. That’s the only way you could explain it. By the way, you’re talking about tens of thousands. If Georgia had merely rejected the same number of unlawful ballots as in other years, there should have been approximately 45,000 ballots projected. Far more than what we needed to win, just over 11,000. They should find those votes. They should absolutely find that. Just over 11,000 votes. That’s all we need.

They defrauded us out of a win in Georgia. And we are not going to forget it. There’s only one reason the Democrats could possibly want to eliminate signature matching, oppose voter ID, and stop citizenship confirmation. Are you a citizen? You’re not allowed to ask that question. Because they want to steal the election.

The radical left knows exactly what they were doing. They are ruthless and it’s time that somebody did something about it. And Mike Pence, I hope you’re going to stand up for the good of our constitution and for the good of our country.

And if you’re not, I’m going to be very disappointed in you. I will tell you right now. I’m not hearing good stories.

In Fulton County, Republican poll watchers rejected in some cases physically, the individuals whose names and dates of birth match incarcerated felons in Georgia prison, people who are not allowed to vote. More than 4,500 illegal ballots were cast by individuals who do not appear on the state’s own voter rolls. Over 18,000 illegal ballots were cast by individuals who registered to vote using an address listed as vacant according to the postal service.

At least 88,000 ballots in Georgia were cast by people whose registrations were illegally backdated. Sixty-six thousand votes–each one of these is far more than we need. Sixty-six thousand votes in Georgia were cast by individuals under the legal voting age and at least 15,000 ballots were cast by individuals who moved out of the state prior to November 3rd election. They say they moved right back.

They move right back. Oh, they moved out, they moved right back, okay. They missed Georgia that much? I do, I love Georgia, but it’s a corrupt system.

Despite all of this, the margin in Georgia is only 11,779 votes. Each and every one of these issues is enough to give us a victory in Georgia, a big beautiful victory. Make no mistake, this election was stolen from you, from me, and from the country, and not a single swing state has conducted a comprehensive audit to remove the illegal ballots. This should absolutely occur in every single contested state before the election is certified.

In the state of Arizona, over 36,000 ballots were illegally cast by non-citizens. Two thousand ballots were returned with no address. More than 22,000 ballots were returned before they were ever supposedly mailed out. They returned, but we haven’t mailed them yet. 11,600 more ballots and votes were counted more than there were actual voters. You see that?

So, you have more votes, again, than you have voters. 150,000 people registered in Maricopa County after the registration deadline. 103,000 ballots in the county were sent for electronic adjudication with no Republican observers.

In Clark County Nevada, the accuracy settings on signature verification machines were purposefully lowered before they were used to count over 130,000 ballots. If you signed your name as Santa Claus, it would go through.

There were also more than 42,000 double votes in Nevada. Over 150,000 people were hurt so badly by what took place and 1,500 ballots were cast by individuals whose names and dates of birth match Nevada residents who died in 2020 prior to November 3rd election. More than 8,000 votes were cast by individuals who had no address and probably didn’t live there.

The margin in Nevada is down at a very low number. Any of these things would have taken care of the situation. We would have won Nevada also. Every one of these we’re going over, we win.

In Michigan, quickly, the secretary of state, a real great one, flooded the state with unsolicited mail-in ballot applications sent to every person on the rolls in direct violation of state law. More than 17,000 Michigan ballots were cast by individuals whose names and dates of birth match people who were deceased.

In Wayne County, that’s a great one. That’d Detroit–174,000 ballots were counted without being tied to an actual registered voter. Nobody knows where they came from. Also in Wayne County, poll watches observed canvassers rescanning batches of ballots over and over again up to three or four or five times.

In Detroit turnout was 139 percent of registered voters. Think of that. So, you had 139 percent of the people in Detroit voting. This is in Michigan, Detroit Michigan. A career employee of the Detroit–City of Detroit testified under penalty of perjury that she witnessed city workers coaching voters to vote straight democrat while accompanying them to watch who they voted for. When a Republican came in, they wouldn’t talk to them.

The same worker was instructed not to ask for any voter ID and not to attempt to validate any signatures if they were Democrats. She also told to illegally and was told backdate ballots, received after the deadline and reports of thousands and thousands of ballots were improperly backdated.

That’s Michigan. Four witnesses have testified under penalty of perjury that after officials in Detroit announced the last votes had been counted, tens of thousands of additional ballots arrived without required envelopes. Every single one was for a Democrat. I got no votes.

At 6:31 AM in the early morning hours after voting had ended, Michigan suddenly reported 147,000 votes. An astounding 94 percent went to Joe Biden who campaigned brilliantly from his basement. Only a couple of percentage points went to Trump.

Such gigantic and one sided vote dumps were only observed in a few swing states and they were observed in the states where it was necessary–you know what’s interesting? President Obama beat Biden in every state other than the swing states where Biden killed them, but the swing states were the ones that mattered.

They’re always just enough to push Joe Biden barely into the lead. We were ahead by a lot and within a number of hours, we were losing by a little.

In addition, there is the highly troubling matter of Dominion voting systems. In one Michigan County alone, 6,000 votes were switched from Trump to Biden and the same systems are used in the majority of states in our country.

Senator William Ligon, a great gentleman, Chairman of Georgia Senate Judiciary Subcommittee, Senator Ligon, highly respected, on elections has written a letter describing his concerns with Dominion in Georgia.

He wrote, and I quote, “The Dominion voting machines employed in Fulton County had an astronomical and astounding 93.67 percent error rate.” It’s only wrong 93 percent of the time in the scanning of ballots requiring a review panel to adjudicate or determine the voters’ interest in over 106,000 ballots out of a total of 113,000.

Think of it, you go in and you vote and then they tell people who you’re supposed to be voting for. They make up whatever they want. Nobody’s ever even heard. They adjudicate your vote. They say, “Well, we don’t think Trump wants to vote for Trump. We think he wants to vote for Biden. Put it down for Biden.”

The national average for such an error rate is far less than 1 percent and yet you’re at 93 percent. The source of this astronomical error rate must be identified to determine if these machines were set up or destroyed to allow for a third party to disregard the actual ballot cast by the registered voter.

The letter continues, “There is clear evidence that tens of thousands of votes were switched from President Trump to former Vice President Biden in several counties in Georgia.” For example, in Bibb County, President Trump was reported to have 29,391 votes at 9:11 PM eastern time while simultaneously, Vice President Joe Biden was reported to have 17,213.

Minutes later, just minutes, at the next update, these vote numbers switched with President Trump going way down to 17,000 and Biden going way up to 29,391. And, that was very quick, a 12,000 vote switch all in Mr. Biden’s favor.

So, I mean, I could go on and on about this fraud that took place in every state and all of these legislators want this back. I don’t want to do it to you because I love you and it’s freezing out here.–

–But, I could just go on forever. I can tell you this–

So, when you hear–when you hear, “While there is no evidence to prove any wrongdoing,” this is the most fraudulent thing anybody’s–this is a criminal enterprise. This is a criminal enterprise and–and the press will say, and I’m sure they won’t put any of that on there because that’s no good and did you ever see while there is no evidence to back President Trump’s assertion–I could go on for another hour reading this stuff to you and telling you about it.

There’s never been anything like it. Think about it. Detroit had more votes than it had voters. Pennsylvania had 205,000 more votes than it had more–but you don’t have to go–between that, I think that’s almost better than dead people if you think, right? More votes than they had voters and many other states also. It’s a disgrace that the United States of America, tens of millions of people are allowed to go vote without so much as even showing identification. In no state is there any question or effort made to verify the identity, citizenship, residency, or eligibility of the votes cast.

The Republicans have to get tougher. You’re not going to have a Republican party if you don’t get tougher. They want to play so straight; they want to play so serious the United States, the Constitution doesn’t allow me to send them back to the states. Well, I would say yes, it does because the Constitution says you have to protect our country, and you have to protect our Constitution, and you can’t vote on fraud, and fraud breaks up everything, doesn’t it? When you catch somebody in a fraud, you are allowed to go by very different rules. So I hope Mike has the courage to do what he has to do, and I hope he doesn’t listen to the RINOs and the stupid people that he’s listening to.

It is also widely understood that the voter rolls are crammed full of noncitizens, felons, and people who have moved out of state, and individuals who are otherwise ineligible to vote, yet Democrats oppose every effort to clean up their voter rolls. They don’t want to clean them up. They are loaded, and how many people here are–know other people that when hundreds of thousands and then millions of ballots got sent out got three, four, five, six and I heard one who got seven ballots, and then they say you didn’t quite make it, sir. We won in a landslide. This was a landslide.

They said it’s not American to challenge the election. This is the most corrupt election in the history, maybe in the world. You know you could go to third world countries, but I don’t think they had hundreds of thousands of votes, and they don’t have voters for them. I mean, no matter where you go, nobody would think this. In fact, it’s so egregious, it’s so bad that a lot of people don’t even believe it. It is so crazy that people don’t even believe it. It can’t be true. So they don’t believe it.

This is not just a matter of domestic politics; this is a matter of national security. So today, in addition to challenging the certification of the election, I’m calling on Congress and the state legislatures to quickly pass sweeping election reforms, and you had better do it before we have no country left. Today is not the end; it’s just the beginning.

With your help over the last four years, we built the greatest political movement in the history of our country, and nobody even challenges that. I say that over and over, and I never get challenged by the fake news, and they challenge almost everything we say. But our fight against the big donors, big media, big tech, and others is just getting started.

This is the greatest in history; there’s never been a movement like that. You look back, there are all of the way to the Washington Monument. It’s hard to believe. We must stop the steal, and then we must ensure that such outrageous election fraud never happens again, can never be allowed to happen again, but we are going forward; we will take care of it going forward. We have got to take care of going back.

Don’t let them talk, okay, well, we promise. I have had a lot of people, sir, you are at 96 percent for four years. I said I’m not interested right now. I’m interested in right there. With your help, we will finally pass powerful requirements for voter ID. You need an ID to cash a check, you need an ID to go to a bank, to buy alcohol, to drive a car; every person should need to show an ID in order to cast your most important thing, a vote.

We will also require proof of American citizenship in order to vote in American elections. We just have a good victory in court on that one, actually. We will ban ballot harvesting and prohibit the use of unsecured drop boxes to commit rampant fraud. These drop boxes are fraudulent. They get–they disappear, and then all of the sudden, they show up. It is fraudulent. We will stop the practice of universal unsolicited mail-in balloting. We will clean up the voter rolls and ensure that every single person who cast a vote is a citizen of our country, a resident of the state in which they vote, and their vote is cast in a lawful and honest manner.

We will restore the vital civic tradition of in-person voting on election day so that voters can be fully informed when they make their choice. We will finally hold big tech accountable, and if these people had courage and guts, they would get rid of Section 230, something that no other company, no other person in America, in the world has.

All of these tech monopolies are going to abuse their power and interfere in our elections, and it has to be stopped; and the Republicans have to get a lot tougher, and so should the Democrats. They should be regulated, investigated, and brought to justice under the fullest extent of the law. They are totally breaking the law.

Together we will drain the Washington swamp, and we will clean up the corruption in our nation’s Capitol. We have done a big job on it, but you think it’s easy; it’s a dirty business. It’s a dirty business. We have a lot of bad people out there. Despite everything we have been through looking out all over this country and seeing fantastic crowds, although this I think is our all-time record.

I think you have 250,000 people, 250,000. Looking out at all of the amazing patriots here today I have never been more confident in our nation’s future. Well, I have to say we have to be a little bit careful. That’s a nice statement, but we have to be a little careful with that statement. If we allow this group of people to illegally take over our country because it’s illegal when the votes are illegal when the way that they got there is illegal, when the states that vote are given false and fraudulent information.

We are the greatest country on earth, and we are headed and were headed in the right direction. You know the wall is built; we are doing record numbers at the wall. Now they want to take down the wall. Let’s let everyone flow in. Let’s let everybody flow in. We did a great job on the wall. Remember the wall; they said it could never be done, one of the largest infrastructure projects we have ever had in this country, and it has had a tremendous impact and we got rid of catch and release, we got rid of all of the stuff that we had to live with. But now the caravans they think Biden is getting in the caravans are forming again. They want to come in again and rip off our country, can’t let it happen.

As this enormous crowd shows, we have truth and justice on our side. We have a deep and enduring love for America in our hearts. We love our country. We have overwhelming pride in this great country. We have it deep in our souls. Together we are determined to defend and preserve government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Our brightest days are before us. Our greatest achievements still wait. I think one of our great achievements will be election security because nobody until I came along had any idea how corrupt our elections were, and again most people would stand there at 9 o’clock in the evening and say I want to thank you very much, and they go off to some other life, but I said something is wrong here, something is really wrong, can’t have happened and we fight, we fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country anymore.

Our exciting adventures and boldest endeavors have not yet begun. My fellow Americans, for our movement, for our children, and for our beloved country, and I say this despite all that has happened, the best is yet to come.

So we are going to–we are going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue, I love Pennsylvania Avenue, and we are going to the Capitol, and we are going to try and give–the Democrats are hopeless, they are never voting for anything, not even one vote but we are going to try–give our Republicans, the weak ones because the strong ones don’t need any of our help, we’re try–going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country. So let’s walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.

I want to thank you all. God bless you and God bless America. Thank you all for being here. This is incredible.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

By: MICHAEL SAPONARA

 Dr. Dre sent the Hip Hop world into a state of shock when he was reportedly rushed to the hospital for a brain aneurysm on Tuesday evening (January 5). Dre quelled worries by saying he was “doing great” but he also received some unfortunate news as well when his Pacific Palisades home reportedly became the target of an attempted robbery.

According to TMZ, four men were arrested for attempted burglary after being spotted by security around 2 a.m. PST Wednesday (January 6) on Dre’s property while he was still in the hospital. They never made it inside the house but were staking out the outside when security confronted them.

The burglars were thwarted by police when they arrived on the scene. Law enforcement has reason to believe the four men saw Dre was hospitalized and thought it was time to strike during a “window of opportunity” with the West Coast mogul attending to his health.

Dre actually suffered the aneurysm on Monday (January 4) and remains in the ICU at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Doctors are still working to determine exactly what caused the brain bleed, but his condition is considered to be “stable.”

The Death Row icon provided an update on his status late Tuesday, claiming he should be out of the hospital and back home soon.

“Thanks to my family, friends and fans for their interest and well wishes,” he wrote. “I’m doing great and getting excellent care from my medical team. I will be out of the hospital and back home soon. Shout out to all the great medical professionals at Cedars. One Love!”

Well wishes poured in from the Hip-Hop community from close friends and collaborators such as 50 Cent, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg and more.

By: KYLE EUSTICE

 Dr.Dre was reportedly rushed by ambulance to Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on Monday (January 4) after suffering a brain aneurysm.

TMZ reports sources connected to Dre and with direct knowledge to the situation say the 55-year-old Hip Hop legend “is stable and lucid,” but doctors still need to run a battery of tests to determine what led to the brain bleed.

Dre is in the middle of a contentious divorce with estranged wife Nicole Young and the two have been battling it out in court. According to the Mayo Clinic high blood pressure is the leading cause of a subarachnoid hemorrhage and heavy lifting or strain can cause the aneurysm to rupture.

Young filed for divorce last June and the proceedings have become increasingly messier as the months drag on. She wants $2 million a month in temporary spousal support and $5 million for attorney fees, but Dre has already been paying her living expenses and moved out of their Malibu estate. Subsequently, a judge threw out her request.

The case revolves around a prenuptial agreement she reportedly signed in 1996, but Young believes the paperwork should be rendered null and void since Dre allegedly ripped it up one night as a romantic gesture.

After being accused of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from Record One Studios, a company she co-founded with Dre, Young hit back with accusations of cheating and abuse. On Tuesday (January 5), Young revealed her husband of 24 years has over 260 million in cash on hand, plus a large amount of Apple stock, which she says is more than enough for him to pay her what she wants.

A hearing was expected to happen on Wednesday (January 6), but Dre will obviously have to focus on healing.

By: JASON LAVERIS

New year, new acquisitions. Hipgnosis Songs Fund announced Monday (Jan. 4) that it has purchased the music catalog of Jimmy Iovine — the legendary music producer and executive who co-founded Interscope Records and Beats Electronics — adding to the investment company’s growing collection of high-profile catalogs.

The deal gives Hipgnosis 100% of Iovine’s worldwide producer royalties across 259 songs, as well as his film production royalties for two films he co-produced: 8 Mile starring Eminem and Get Rich or Die Tryin’ starring 50-Cent.

Iovine said in a statement that he will commit proceeds from the deal, the total of which was not disclosed, to help build a high school in South Los Angeles as part of the University of Southern California Iovine and Young Academy, the undergraduate program he co-founded with Dr Dre in 2013. “I’m happy that my work as a producer with so many great artists has found the right home,” he added.

While Iovine is best known today as a music executive, he first rose to prominence in the 1970s as a music engineer, working with such icons as John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith. A pivotal moment for Iovine came in 1979, when he produced Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers” breakthrough third album Damn the Torpedoes. In the ’80s, Iovine went on to produce decade-defining albums including Dire Straights” Making Movies, Stevie Nicks debut solo album, Bella Donna, U2’s Under a Blood Red Sky and The Pretenders” Get Close.

Iovine entered a new career phase as a music executive in 1990, when he co-founded Interscope Records alongside Ted Field. At the now-storied label, he developed the careers of Tupac, Dr Dre and Eminem, also signing the likes of Gwen Stefani, Nine Inch Nails, Black Eyed Peas and Lady Gaga. In 2008, he and Dr Dre co-founded headphones brand Beats Electronics and Beats Music, both of which Apple purchased for $3 billion total in 2014 — a deal which brought Iovine in-house at Apple, where he helped architect Apple Music and Beats 1.

The partnership between Iovine and Dr Dre became the subject of HBO docu-series The Defiant Ones in 2017. It wasn’t Iovine’s first run-in with success in Hollywood: 8 Mile, released in 2002, grossed more than $240 million worldwide and spawned Eminem’s hit single “Lose Yourself,” while the soundtrack for 2005 film Get Rich or Die Tryin’, executive-produced by Iovine, has sold 3 million copies worldwide.

With the new acquisition, Hipgnosis continues to build out its treasure trove of some of the top catalogs in music. Founded by superstar manager Merck Mercuriadis, the Guernsey-registered investment company’s recent purchases have included the catalogs (outright or a stake in) of Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA, Blondie, Barry Manilow, Dion “No I.D.” Wilson and Rick James. In November, Hipgnosis acquired the Kobalt Music Copyrights Fund 1, including 33,000 songs, for $323 million.

“While barely in my teens, I noticed that so many of my favorite albums had one name in common. The best albums by John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith all had Jimmy Iovine on them,” Mercuriadis said in a statement. “[…] I have been glued to everything Jimmy does ever since. His incomparable success with Interscope and Beats means that he would never have to make a deal for money again, but leave it to Jimmy to figure out the most efficient way possible to use his producer royalties to build a best-in-class high school in the inner city and once again make a massive difference, as he has throughout his life. It’s an honor to now be a custodian of his incredible work on these iconic albums and I’m very happy to welcome him to the Hipgnosis family.”

Iovine was represented in the deal by Paul Wachter of Main Street Advisors and attorneys Eric Sacks and Don Friedman of Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks.

By: CALLIE MCGUIRE

Rapper MF DOOM’s family confirmed his death in a statement on Dec. 31, 2020. The legendary rapper was only 49. DOOM’s wife, Jasmine, posted the news of her husband’s death on Instagram, confirming that he died on Oct. 31, 2020. As for this writing, the rapper’s cause of death has not been disclosed.

Jasmine’s poignant Instagram message said, “The greatest husband, father, teacher, student, business partner, lover and friend I could ever ask for.Thank you for all the things you have shown, taught and given to me, our children and our family. Thank you for teaching me how to forgive beings and give another chance, not to be so quick to judge and write off. Thank you for showing how not to be afraid to love and be the best person I could ever be.” The heartbreaking message continued, “My world will never be the same without you. Words will never express what you and Malachi mean to me, I love both and adore you always. May THE ALL continue to bless you, our family and the planet.”

Amid the news of MF DOOM’s passing, countless fans and collaborators took to social media to honor his memory. Keep on reading to see what people had to say.

MF DOOM, known for his “impossibly intricate rhyme schemes and his signature mask,” according to Rolling Stone, faced several tragedies before his death. DOOM’s brother, DJ Subroc died in 1993, and the rapper left the public eye for several years until the late 90s, Billboard noted. Then, in 2017, the rapper announced via Instagram that his 14-year-old son, Malachi Ezekiel Dumile, had died, per NME. Despite all of that, the mysterious rapper continued to create music, recording six studio albums. 

MF DOOM’s life was quickly memorialized on Twitter, with Diplo penning, “Seeing the tweets about MF DOOM show me a whole generation was touched by his madness, wordplay, and voice.. 20 years ago I was home listening to mixtapes and 12″s learning.. trying to emulate a sound. a true inspiration for how far you can push a genre.. rest in peace villain.” One fan said, “RIP MF DOOM. He was my introduction to a new realm of underground hip-hop in early high school. Don’t even know what to say, except to go listen to the music he made and don’t miss out on it. Really just speechless.” Kojo Ebro wrote, “MF Doom is a legend. Loved his whole journey. He is and will always be constant reminder that us mainstream media is not needed to keep HipHop healthy & thriving!”

It’s clear MF DOOM’s talent touched many and that his legacy won’t be forgotten anytime soon. 

By: KYLE EUSTICE

Just one week after Whodini member John “Ecstasy” Flectcher  passed away, the pioneering Hip Hop community has suffered another monumental loss.

On Wednesday (December 30), D.j. Premier shared an Instagram post mourning the death of Adolfo “Shabba-Doo” Quiñones, better known as “Ozone” from the quintessential Hip Hop films Breakin’ and Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo. 

“One Of Our Greatest Street Dancers/Choreographer And HIP HOP ICON and Star of the Hit Movie ‘BREAKIN’ As The Character ‘OZONE’ Has Passed,” he captioned a photo of Shabba-Doo. “R.I.P. Shabba Doo…Crazy Thing Is He Posted On IG Yesterday That He Was Feeling Better…Your Legacy Will Not Be Forgotten….

According to Shabba-Do’s last Instagram post, the 65-year-old feared he was battling COVID 19 but had just tested negative for the virus.

“Good news y’all,” he captioned a photo of himself laying in bed. “I’m feeling all better I’m just a wee bit sluggish from my cold, but the good news is I’m Covid 19 negative! Woo hoo!!! I awoke this morning to a gift from my pal, George “DJ 360MIX” Jett! Thanks man! Anyway, I’m excited lots of catching up to do. Let’s gooo!

“Thank you to everyone for your kind, sweet, and loving get well wishes and thoughts. Oh, I didn’t sleep in my beanie and glasses, lol, I donned them cause my vanity kicked in and didn’t want you to see my bed head, and crusty eyes, haha… Have a great day peeps.”

He ended his post with the hashtags, “#covidwarrior #covidscare #lol.”

Born on May 11, 1955 in Chicago, Illinois, Shabba-Doo was a member of The Original Lockers dance crew alongside founder Don “Campbellock” Campbell, Fred “Rerun” Berry and Toni Basil.

Along with the crew, Shabba-Doo helped popularize the dance style known as locking, which was accidentally created when Campbell was struggling to do the “Robot Shuffle” and stopped at a particular point, leading to a locking effect. Soon, he was incorporating the move into all of his performances and Shabba-Doo quickly caught on.

Shabba-Doo’s big break came in 1984 when he landed the role of Ozone in the cult classic film Breakin’. The plot revolved around a young dancer who’s enthralled by two street dancers — Ozone and Turbo — she stumbled upon in Venice Beach. She convinces them to form a dance troupe and enter a competition that typically doesn’t accept that kind of dance, but they end up blowing the judges’ minds with their innovative style.

The success of the film led to Shabba-Doo’s role in the sequel Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo, which was released that same year. From there, he appeared in Rave – Dancing To A Different Beat, which he also directed, as well as television shows such as The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, Married… with Children, Miami Vice and Saturday Night Live. 

In addition to acting, Shabba-Doo’s served as a choreographer to numerous artist, including Lionel Richie, Madonna and Luther Vandross. He was also a primary dancer and main choreographer for Madonna’s Who’s That Girl? Tour in 1987.

In 2006, choreographed Three 6 Mafia’s performance of “It’s Hard Out Here For A Pimp” at the 78th Academy Awards where the Memphis legends became the first Hip Hop group ever to win an Oscar.

Shabba-Doo’s son Vashawn said his father was getting ready to open a digital studio in January, so his death came as a surprise. Twitter is exploding with reactions from fans and peers alike, including Krush Groove star Shiela E., Ice-T (who played a club MC in Breakin‘ and Breakin’ 2), Snoop Dogg and R.A. The Rugged Man.

By: JON CARAMANICA

He was, the executive who signed Whodini said, “truly one of the first rap stars” and a sex symbol “when they were very scarce in the early days of rap.”

John Fletcher, who as Ecstasy of the foundational hip-hop group Whodini was the engine for some of the genre’s first pop successes, wearing a flamboyant Zorroesque hat all the while,died on Wednesday in Atlanta.He was 56.

His daughter Jonnelle Fletcher confirmed the death in a statement. She said the cause had not yet been determined.

In the mid-1980s, Whodini — made up initially of Mr. Fletcher (whose hip-hop name was sometimes rendered Ecstacy) and Jalil Hutchins, who were later joined by the D.J. Grandmaster Dee (born Drew Carter) — released a string of essential hits, including “Friends,” “Freaks Come Out at Night” and “One Love.” Whodini presented as street-savvy sophisticates with a pop ear, and Mr. Fletcher was the group’s outsize character and most vivid rapper.

“I can’t sing,” he told The Los Angeles Times in 1987. “But I heard somebody rap one day and I said to myself, ‘I can do that.’ I rap in pitch. I try to be unique. I have my own style.”

John Beamon Fletcher Jr. was born on June 7, 1964, in Brooklyn to John and Mary Fletcher and grew up in the Wyckoff Gardens projects in Boerum Hill. He first worked with Mr. Hutchins, who was from nearby Gowanus, when Mr. Hutchins was trying to record a theme song for the newly influential radio D.J. Mr. Magic.

That collaboration received significant local attention, and Mr. Fletcher and Mr. Hutchins were soon signed by Jive Records, which named them Whodini. They quickly recorded “Magic’s Wand,” produced by Thomas Dolby, and “The Haunted House of Rock,” a Halloween song.

“Ecstasy was truly one of the first rap stars,” Barry Weiss, the executive who signed them, wrote on Instagram. “Not just a brilliant voice and wordsmith but a ladies’ man and sex symbol when they were very scarce in the early days of rap. Whodini helped usher in a female audience to what had been a traditional male art form.”

Most of the group’s earliest material was recorded in London when Mr. Fletcher was fresh out of high school. Its 1983 self-titled debut album was produced by Conny Plank, who had also produced the bands Kraftwerk and Neu! Whodini also toured Europe before finding true success back in the United States.

“We didn’t go to university and get a college degree, but that was our education, just seeing the world,” Mr. Fletcher said in a 2018 interview with the YouTube channel HipHop40.

For its follow-up album, “Escape” (1984), Whodini began working with the producer Larry Smith, who amplified its sound and gave it a bit of appealing scuff. (Mr. Smith was also responsible for Run-DMC’s breakout albums.) “Escape” contained the songs that would become Whodini’s seminal hits, notably “Friends” and “Five Minutes of Funk” (released as flip sides on the same 12-inch single) and “Freaks Come Out at Night.”

“Friends,” a skeptical storytelling song about deceit, was a smash in its own right and had a robust afterlife as sample material, most notably on Nas and Lauryn Hill’s “If I Ruled The World”

“Five Minutes of Funk” — which would become even more widely known as the theme music for the long-running hip-hop video show “Video Music Box” — deployed a clever countdown motif woven through the lyrics. “In creating that song,” Mr. Fletcher told HipHop40, “we pictured it blaring from the windows in the projects as we walked through it on a summer’s day.”

As hip-hop was beginning to gain global notice, Whodini was consistently near the center of the action. The group was managed by the rising impresario Russell Simmons and appeared on the inaugural Fresh Fest tour, hip-hop’s first arena package.

But as Run-DMC was taking hip-hop to edgier territory, Whodini remained committed to smoothness. “We were the rap group that kind of bridged the gap between the bands and the rappers,” Mr. Fletcher told HipHop40, adding that he and Mr. Hutchins were mindful that hip-hop was still struggling to gain acceptance among radio programmers, and wrote songs accordingly: “We wanted to curse, but we couldn’t curse.”

Mr. Fletcher was also a key innovator in introducing melody to rapping. “Ecstasy was the lead vocalist on most Whodini songs because anything that we could play he could rap right to it in key,” Mr. Hutchins said in an interview with the hip-hop website The Foundation.

“Escape” went platinum, and Whodini’s next two albums, “Back in Black” (1986) and “Open Sesame” (1987), both went gold. On “One Love” (from “Back in Black”), which had streaks of the sound that was to soon coalesce as new jack swing, Mr. Fletcher was reflective, almost somber:

The words ‘love’ and ‘like’ both have four letters
But they’re two different things altogether
‘Cause I’ve liked many ladies in my day
But just like the wind they’ve all blown away

Havelock Nelson and Michael A. Gonzales, in their book “Bring the Noise: A Guide to Rap Music and Hip-Hop Culture” (1991), described Whodini as “a beautifully kept building in the middle of Brooklyn’s ghetto heaven, personable characters floating gently through a turbulent sea of hard-core attitude and crush-groove madness.”

In no small part that was because of the group’s style. Whodini dressed with flair: leather jackets, sometimes with no shirt; flowing pants or short shorts; loafers. And most crucially, Mr. Fletcher’s flat-brimmed leather hats, which became his signature look, inspired by a wool gaucho he saw in a shop on Myrtle Avenue in Brooklyn that he had remade in leather. Before long, he had several.

“He had them in red; had them in white; two in black, one with an African headpiece on it,” Mr. Hutchins said in a 2013 interview with the Alabama website AL.com. “He had different ones, but the original one was his favorite.”

Whodini was also one of the first hip-hop groups to use dancers in their stage shows. A young Jermaine Dupri got one of his earliest breaks as a dancer for the group. He later repaid the favor, signing Whodini to his label, So So Def, on which it released its final album, “Six,” in 1996. Whodini continued to perform frequently into the 2000s.

In addition to his daughter Jonnelle, Mr. Fletcher’s survivors include his partner, Deltonia Cannon; five other children, Johnmon, Monet, Bianca, Sahara and Tiana; three brothers, Joseph, David and Douglas; a sister, Harriet Fletcher; and five grandchildren. Another sister, Mary Eyvette Fletcher, died before him.

By: GABRIELLE CHUNG & TIM MCGOVERN

Tommy “Tiny” Lister, best known for his roles in The Dark Knight and the Friday film series, has died at the age of 62.

While he had not tested positive for the novel coronavirus prior to his death, Lister died on Thursday after exhibiting “COVID symptoms” for a week, his manager Cindy Cowan said.

“He was a gentle giant and one-of-a-kind,” she says. “A man that’s like been a brother to me for 20 years.”

The actor was scheduled to work on a movie over the weekend, but had canceled on Friday, according to Cowan.

“He was just really complaining, but he was too weak to go to the doctor,” she says.

According to Cowan, a friend went to check up on Lister at his home after he didn’t return their calls.

Lister was found unresponsive at his apartment in Marina Del Rey, California, according to TMZ who was first to report the news. The outlet reported that Lister was pronounced dead at the scene.

A cause of death has not been determined.

Lister kicked off his film career in the 1980s, appearing in movies such as Runaway Train, Blue City and Beverly Hills Cop II.

In 1989, he appeared as a wrestler in World Wrestling Federation’s movie No Holds Barred, which starred Hulk Hogan, Lister went on to wrestle in the World Championship Wrestling (WCW) under the name Z-Gangsta.

Lister broke out as a film actor in 1995, playing the part of Deebo, the neighborhood bully, in Friday. He reprised the role for its 2000 sequel, Next Friday.

On the silver screen, Lister also had roles in The Dark Knight, Jackie Brown, Austin Powers in Goldmember and The Fifth Element.

In addition to film, Lister appeared in numerous television series such as Matlock, Perfect Strangers, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Moesha and The Jamie Foxx Show.

Lister was also a gifted voice actor, with credits in The Cleveland Show and Zootopia.

He made cameos in music videos for artists like Michael Jackson, Ice Cube, 50 Cent, Chamillionaire, Iggy Azalea and Akon.

Ice Cube, who was also Lister’s costar in Friday, wrote on Twitter after his death, “RIP Tiny ‘Deebo’ Lister. America’s favorite bully was a born entertainer who would pop into character at the drop of a hat terrifying people on and off camera. Followed by a big smile and laugh. Thank you for being a good dude at heart. I miss you already.”

By: MIKE BARNES & JACKIE STRAUSE

The actress died after a battle with colon cancer.

Natalie Desselle Reid, the comedy actress who starred opposite Halle Berry in the 1997 movie B.A.P.S. and had a recurring role on the UPN sitcom Eve, has died. She was 53.

Desselle Reid died Monday morning, her manager, Dolores Robinson, and actress Holly Robinson Peete reported on Twitter.

“Natalie was a bright light. She was an amazing actress and comedienne but also an awesome mother & wife,” wrote Robinson.

Robinson Peete added that she was “absolutely decimated” by the news of Desselle Reid’s passing. “I got to know her when my mom was managing her,” she wrote. “She will be so missed … sending out prayers to her children and husband.”

Desselle Reid died after a private battle with colon cancer, TMZ reported.

What appears to be Desselle Reid’s Instagram account also confirmed the news of her death, sharing that the actress was “a bright light in this world. A queen. An extraordinary mother and wife. Her diverse career touched so many and she will be loved forever. Naturally, we are grieving and processing this profound loss and we thank you in advance for respecting our privacy at this extremely difficult time.”

In B.A.P.S., directed by Robert Townsend, Desselle Reid and Berry portrayed waitresses in a soul food diner in Georgia who wind up caring for a Beverly Hills millionaire (Martin Landau) and living large as “Black American Princesses.” Desselle Reid memorably played the character of Mickey.

She was Eve’s pal Janie Egins on 66 episodes over all three seasons (2003-06) of Eve.

Desselle Reid also appeared on the big screen in Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family, F. Gary Gray’s Set It Off and Def Jam’s How to Be a Player. She starred on Built to Last, an NBC sitcom that aired in 1997, and as the evil stepsister Minerva in Brandy’s ABC movie of Cinderella that year.

Born July 12, 1967, in Alexandria, Louisiana, Desselle Reid attended Grambling State University.

Survivors include her husband, Leonard, and her children, Sereno, Summer and Sasha. A GoFundMe page has been set up for help the family with expenses.