Hey, it's David. I'm your host for this edition of The News Roundup and just a quick heads up

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You're listening to The One A Podcast. I'm NPR's David Gurra and it's time for another edition of The News Roundup. Let's get into it.

It's been two and a half years since a mob stormed the Capitol and the events that led up to January 6 still dominate the headlines.

This week was no exception. It's a two tier system, but it's worse than that. It's a very corrupt system.

President Trump went up in the polls and was actually surpassing President Biden for re-election. So what do they do now? Weaponize government.

You know, this is propaganda understood as a form of magic that the people perpetrating don't believe in, but the people who receive it still do.

Of course, there's plenty of other important stories we need to catch up on. I cannot promise a completely barbie free conversation today.

My colleague Ron Elving is a senior editor and correspondent on the Washington desk at NPR. Annie Greyer is also with us. She covers politics for CNN as one of the network's Capitol Hill reporters. Jeff Mason is a White House correspondent for Reuters.

How do all of you?

Let's start in the state of Michigan, which is prosecuting 16 Republicans who acted as fake electors for then President Trump in 2020.

All of them accused of submitting false certificates that purportedly confirmed they were the legitimate electors despite Joe Biden's victory in the state.

Here is Michigan's attorney general, Dana Nestle.

That was a lie. They weren't the duly elected and qualified electors and each of the defendants knew it.

Ron, let me start with you and ask you just for a definition here. What does it mean to be a fake electron? What happened in that basement, that R&C headquarters basement, now more than a couple years ago?

There is a designated day when the Electoral College meets in all 50 state capitals. That is the way it works. That is the way it has worked for centuries.

And these folks tried to go to the Capitol. Some of them were even talking about hiding out in the Capitol overnight to get in.

Remember, this is back during COVID time. There were some restrictions. And so only the people who were the legitimate electors representing the Biden campaign, which had won the state by 154,000 votes.

Three percentage points. This was not one of the huge squeakers, like, say, Arizona or Wisconsin.

And these folks really had no right to go to the state Capitol that day. But they were summoned, not entirely clear by whom.

And they were told to meet in the basement of the Republican headquarters for the state. And to prepare to go to the Capitol, some did try to go to the Capitol.

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