Article to Accuse Trump of Inciting an Insurrection
The WSJ reports House Democrats to Introduce Article of Impeachment Against Trump.
House Democrats plan to introduce an article of impeachment against President Trump on Monday, according to two Democratic aides, as lawmakers intensified calls to remove the president soon before the end of his term after he encouraged a mob that later stormed the Capitol in an effort to disrupt the certification of his election loss to President-elect Joe Biden.
More than 150 House Democrats, well over half of the caucus, have signed on to the article of impeachment written by Reps. David Cicilline of Rhode Island, Ted Lieu of California and Jamie Raskin of Maryland that focuses on the breach of the Capitol complex and accuses the president of inciting an insurrection. If passed, it would make Mr. Trump the first president in the nation’s history to be impeached twice.
“This conduct is so grave and this president presents such a clear and present danger to our democracy, I don’t think you can simply say let’s just wait it out” until Mr. Trump leaves office, said Mr. Cicilline in an interview. Mr. Biden’s inauguration is Jan. 20.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) said Friday the House would move to impeachment if Mr. Trump doesn’t leave office imminently, though she hasn’t specifically backed the article that lawmakers plan to introduce.
Trump Neutered
Mrs. Pelosi also said on Friday she spoke with the Joint Chiefs chairman, Army Gen. Mark Milley, “to discuss available precautions for preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike.”
“I was assured that there are safeguards in place,” Mrs. Pelosi said on a private phone call among House Democrats, calling the president unhinged, according to a person on the call.
Trump is no longer running the country.
Symbolic Action
Impeachment is highly likely to be a symbolic action.
McConnell will delay this long enough so that Trump will already be gone. He will not want an official vote so that Senators will have to take a stand.
Trump Crossed a Constitutional Line and Should Resign
Two days ago the WSJ commented Trump Crossed a Constitutional Line and Should Resign
I concluded “Senate Majority leader McConnell should demand Trump’s resignation or tell the president he will support an impeachment process if he doesn’t.”
Today, we can see that will not happen.
I spoke out against impeachment the first time. This time, Trump is clearly guilty.
But is impeachment wise?
Willing to Take a Stand
- Sen. Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) said he would consider impeachment.
- Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski became the first Republican senator to call for Mr. Trump to resign.
- Senator Mitt Romney “stand outs”
Murkowski says I Want Him Out.
“I want him to resign. I want him out. He has caused enough damage,” Murkowski told the Anchorage Daily News.
Murkowski told the newspaper that if the GOP doesn’t cut ties with Trump, she might leave the party. “If the Republican Party has become nothing more than the party of Trump, I sincerely question whether this is the party for me,” she said.
Romney has not publicly stated an opinion on impeachment but I am quite sure he would do it. Romney’s speech calling out GOP was the culmination of years of warning about Trump
Late in the evening, as senators confirmed President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, Romney delivered a scathing speech excoriating the elected officials who put political ambition ahead of the nation — the natural culmination of a danger Romney had been warning about for more than four years.
“We gather today due to a selfish man’s injured pride and the outrage of his supporters whom he has deliberately misinformed for the past two months and stirred to action this very morning,” said Romney, speaking in the Senate chamber about Trump’s baseless claims that the November election was rigged.
Recall that Romney was the only Republican to vote for Trump’s impeachment last year. It is reasonable to assume he would again.
Hang Mike Pence
Meanwhile, pro-Trump protesters in Dallas chant “Hang Mike Pence”.
https://twitter.com/59dallas/status/1346963199778828290
I am surprised that video is still up.
Morally Corrupt
I do think that Cruz, McConnell, and Graham hold genuinely abhorrent views. I also think that they are morally and emotionally detached from practically everything they say. If supporting Trump’s impeachment seemed like a good tactical move, they’d do so in a minute.
— Rachel Vorona Cote (@RVoronaCote) January 9, 2021
Lindsey Graham’s Fake Worry “Further Divide the Country”
Graham: Second Trump impeachment will further divide America https://t.co/bSUBRvfEjV
— Sean Hannity 🇺🇸 (@seanhannity) January 9, 2021
Question of the Day
If impeaching Trump would “further divide the country,” as Republicans claim, then what did the GOP think challenging Biden’s election win would do?
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 9, 2021
If impeaching Trump would “further divide the country,” as Republicans claim, then what did the GOP think challenging Biden’s election win would do?
Mish
It is sad that so many Trumpian fools need a civics lesson.
Three presidents have been impeached: Clinton, Andrew Johnson, and Trump.
They were all “impeached” but none convicted by the Senate.
Yes, Trump was impeached and he will be impeached again.
LIARS! He was acquitted! Fake news media. You’re all saying that and you should be charged.
If I stood trial for murder and was acquitted and you people said I was CONVICTED you’d be paying for it.
I think you have a language problem. To be “impeached” means to be formally charged with a crime. It is much like being indicted. Trump was definitely impeached, because the house voted to charge him. He was was then acquitted, so he was not removed from office.
It is sad that so many fools need a civics lesson.
Three presidents have been impeached: Clinton, Andrew Johnson, and Trump.
They were all “impeached” but none convicted by the Senate.
Yes, Trump was impeached and he will be impeached again.
Wasn’t he acquitted on the first attempt and not actually impeached?
Yes, he was acquitted and a lot of news media is posting lies that said he was impeached. The witch tried but failed.
It is sad that so many fools need a civics lesson.
Three presidents have been impeached: Clinton, Andrew Johnson, and Trump.
They were all “impeached” but none convicted by the Senate.
Yes, Trump was impeached and he will be impeached again.
To be impeached is like being indicted. It means being charged with a crime. Thus, yes, Trump was officially impeached, as was Johnson and Clinton. So far, no US President who has been impeached has been convicted and removed from office.
And their third attempt will not work either.
Can’t these people do any real work?
Hedley Lamarr: You got impeached twice
Trump: I like impeachment
A tribute to blazing saddles
We must do something. Harrumph, harrumph.
The Houston Chronicle is taking aim at Ted Cruz.
Why is this surprising? It’s a blue rag.
But it’s his own home town, too. I wonder if Charlie Koch is going to keep giving him money, is what I wonder.
Maybe you should move to China instead.
It’s not a bad idea, they’ll likely eclipse the living standards in the US within 10 years for sure.
I find that Trump needed to remind protesters to be peaceful before the march. During the protest, he should have tweeted to his supporters, stay out of the Capitol and behind barricades. These omissions are conceivably impeachable.
I am suspicious that the impeachment is designed to keep Trump from running in 2024. Seems like his first impeachment was over an issue of prosecuting Biden, to keep him from running in 2020.
It sure would have been nice to have a transparent election in the counting rooms of the battle ground states. Are we now dealing with our Republic, or something that just resembles the one we had, when it’s convenient?
Kimo
These false statements are what got a Capitol police officer killed as well as four other traitorous scumbags. You have their blood on your hands.
Trump’s goal was to stop The Senate and Congress from certifying the votes. Riling up a bunch of supporters was very much part of the plan. Even if he didn’t fully think it through he should have known once incited a mob cannot be controlled.
Seems like you don’t accept the premise that Trump used pressure on Ukraine to interfere in the U.S. election. I have zero doubt. But if you refuse to believe this premise you’ll be prone to accept disingenuous motives for his first impeachment.
There seems to be a lot of mind readers here. There will be plenty of hand blood to go around, once we have a black Chaney heading the DOD.
In the meantime, we’ll focus on the blood of the five dead on Capitol Hill on your hands.
More grounds for impeachment. It won’t result in early removal but after impeachment Senate can vote by simple majority to block from every running for office again
Trump seems to have never met a law he didn’t want to break.
It’s simply not going to happen. Pence won’t do the 25th amendment and even if House votes Impeachment on Monday, Senate is not in session. A trial would not take place until Biden becomes President. Impeachment is simply not a tool for removing a President with less than two week remaining in his term.
Taking away the nuclear codes and his bullhorn will have to suffice until 1/20/21.
He still has access to the nuclear codes. It’s absurd to expect the military to now ignore his lawful orders. That’s not their job
We’ll probably never know, but Pelosi intervened with the military and reportedly got assurances.
It’s understood that the military won’t usurp the President, but they can disobey an unlawful order. That’s sufficient.
she got no assurances. i read the articles. she asked about procedures. the military is angry they are being asked to do the job of the vp and congress. they must follow lawful orders.
Is a pre-emptive nuclear first strike lawful?
Speaking of the failure of education system. Here in California, we have high taxes that are supposed to pay for stuff, like education etc.. In actuality, majority of schools are in debt to Wall Street through bonds.
Some examples from two rich school districts:
Saratoga Union Elementary district (very rich district, and still has bond debt)
Revenue per student = $18.3k
Instruction expenditure per student = 9.9k
Interest on debt = $0.5k
Los Gatos Union Elementary (fairly well off district, even for CA)
Revenue per student = $15.1k
Instruction expenditure per student = 7.2k
Interest on debt = $1.0k
This is true , better or worse shape, for vast majority of schools in California.
Why or why are these public school districts in debt to Wall Street???
Simple answer: They put it to a vote and the people in the district voted yes. Democracy no?
Yes it is democracy – I think bonds should automatically come with higher taxes for the district to pay for the bonds faster. Duration should be limited to 15 years. Just so that anti-tax people think more about it.
Public education system only has 12 years to produce informed electorate that votes for 50-60 more years. It should be viewed as the most essential branch of government.
Huh. It’s hard to believe it took a home-grown American putsch to finally expose the Manchurian candidate. The shallow pool of idiots who still support the mad king reflects enormous short-comings in the outcomes our nation’s educational system. Unfortunately, the big lies of the past four years are not likely to die with this administration. Just watch…those same lies will be taken up by a new, bolder, and more violent breed of facists, just as they were in 1930s Europe. How sad.
I sense both China and Russia are delighted international media coverage of the D.C. mayhem…it makes the U.S. appear incredibly weak and disorganized on the world stage.
The internet pushing of Brexit and Trump have greatly reduced the effectiveness of the US and UK countering Russia and China. The UK and US will be hobbled for years–an outcome both China and Russia are delighted with.
Besides incitement, if he actually did delay deployment of the National Guard for hours then he should be put in jail, not just removed from office.
Some people still do not fully understand the implications of the psychopathology of trump and the worst of his followers. He is a malignant narcissist and a sociopath. People keep trying to ascribe normal human emotions and reactions to him, but they are not going to get those. He is essentially devoid of empathy for anything other than himself and his immediate family (or only a few of them maybe). Everything DOES revolve around him in his mind, in an extreme way that is even outside the bounds of what we think we understand from certain arrogant yet less total narcissists than him that we may know personally.
This makes him capable of some very dangerous actions, or in egging them on, in his final days in office.
His hardcore supporters and seditionists who invaded the Capitol had telegraphed their intentions for weeks ahead of time, yet the Capitol Police did not prepare properly and trump’s DoD refused to release the critically needed National Guard support before the electoral counting day itself, and then delayed up to 90 minutes after they were frantically requested DURING the insurrection.
Now on Parler, there are various white supremacist groups and affiliated terrorist vigilantes and other trumplings who are promising violence and chaos around the inauguration dates. They have mentioned Jan 17, 19, and 20 already, and boldly so, basically taunting that they can’t be stopped because they will be armed heavily this time.
This time it needs to be taken much more seriously – even if it turns out smaller than threatened. Problem is, some of the force needed to prepare for this needs to be assigned and implemented by trump’s departments like the DoD in charge of the Guard in DC, so I’m expecting he will understaff it intentionally again. Apparently, he was gleeful at the Capitol invasion, and perplexed when many around him watching it on tv were horrified.
Here’s an article and interview with more description of his psychopathology by someone who specializes in this area of study:
We have to be honest about what the goals of impeachment are. If the point is to remove Trump from office before his term ends that us not going to happen. That said there needs to be ramifications. We can’t simply take repercussions off the table. What Trump did was unconscionable
The goal of impeachment is not to remove Trump from office before his term. It is to appease or solidify the Democratic base for Dem legislators, and to put pressure on Rep legislators to choose one way or the other, and live with the repercussions.
It should be to send a message to future Presidents that this is not OK, that there will be consequences. He should lose all privileges granted to an ex-president. The history books should have an asterisk next to his name and in a perfect world future students would ask why was mike pence President for three days
The point should be to insure that Trump can never run again.
My prediction has always been that the pendulum swing from Trump’s idiotic presidency would be socialism. At least this impeachment will be just. Hunter’s laptop has proven that the first one was not.
Go ahead, a useless impeachment that will do a lot bring the country together. After 6 months with Biden and his elites governing things will be so bad we will be begging to have him and his policies back.
70-75% of America is now unified, any moderates that were on the fence have just been pushed to one side by the fact that trump’s actions could have been construed as just harmless free speech up to this week.
My concern, this incident may have spawned a swing too far to the left for a prolonged period….politically correct nanny state, high taxes, here we come.
“70-75% of America is now unified, any moderates”
No we aren’t. I was against Trump and against Democrats.
That Trump is torched does not make me “unified” with Democrats. I’m more concerned about them than ever.
There’s nothing keeping them in check now and they’re having a major release of 4 years of pent up hatred. The principles of our democracy are the furthest things from their minds right now.
I just said, basically, the same thing – read my last sentence, I’d bet we’re about to oscillate to the other extreme, like I said – “….politically correct nanny state, high taxes, here we come.”
I agreed with your 2nd sentence, no point quoting or responding to it.
A police officer was murdered. If you can’t agree to the law, then you are not welcome in America. Fucking leave now.
“A police officer was murdered. If you can’t agree to the law, then you are not welcome in America. Fucking leave now.”
To whom were you replying? I’m reading the 3 comments above yours and I don’t see how this relates to any of them.
Did anybody advocate lawlessness?
Sorry, yes simb original comment.
The elites have been in charge with Trump the whole time. The only difference has been the rhetoric. We’ll be rid of Mnuchin, Pompeo, Javanka, and the rest for a new cadre of swamp creatures.
All Trump did was cheerlead for Wall St and rack up debt. How did you fail to see this for four years?
“we will be begging to have him and his policies back”
virtually nobody will be begging to have Trump back. Not in 6 months and not in 6 years.
His policies? Ignoring that he did not actually implement his policies, so they shouldn’t be called his… yes, some of the policies for which he verbally advocated were good things, and sadly, they’re all going to be tossed in the trash along with him. Some time from now, when the anti-Trump emotions are in the distant past for most Americans, we’ll wish we hadn’t had such a knee-jerk reaction.
Ohh cry me a river. As soon as Republicans lost, they’re crying about unification.
I propose the Democratic legislators become ruthless legislative thugs like the Republicans have been for the last 20 years, and grab as much power as they can, while they can.
Anyone who thinks we will be begging for Trump to be back should look in the mirror. They will spot someone with TCS.
There is a huge difference between wanting Biden gone and wanting Trump back.
Just the fact that it was Pence, not trump, who requested the National Guard to come into D.C. tells us Pence likely had to use leverage with Trump.
That conversation probably included mention of the 25th, and to spare him the humiliation Pence was allowed to call in the National Guard.
I also believe trump will be the 1rst US president in history to be convicted, potentially jailed, after leaving office.
trump directed his base to go after Pence, that’s one of the most myopic political moves I’ve ever seen….some of these armed idiots were openly saying they were there for Pence.
“Hang Mike Pence. Hang Mike Pence.”
Incitement to treason. Capital offense.
didn’t appear
it must be a link to something. the web design here stinks
The Full caption is “This is what you get when you cancel Burning Man”
I have mixed feelings about this. Trump committed sedition, started a fire in an attempt to stop a valid election, a coup d’etat, but I know its not likely to pass the Senate but I am gobsmacked at the outrage on the right calling this inappropriate when they signed onto impeaching Bill Clinton for lying about a blow job. Sedition vs blow job. You tell me
I have no mixed feelings. Trump clearly committed “high crimes and misdemeanors”. What he did was worse than what Nixon did, by an order of magnitude. No one died at Watergate. Nixon was willing to steal information to win an election. Trump doesn’t believe he needed to actually win the election, he believed he could stay anyway.
The biggest problem with impeachment is that it has been abused as a political weapon, first against Johnson, then Clinton, and then against Trump. Now people are reluctant to use it for what it was originally intended for, but they shouldn’t be. Use it when there really are high crimes, and not the rest of the time.
Funny Sechel….my wife and I were just having a conversation involving the Sedition vs. Blowjob comparison of high crimes and misdemeanors…..only in this Puritan society would a President have been impeached for sexual misconduct…..although it is true Clinton lied through his teeth about it… and I do think his conduct was reprehensible…don’t get me wrong.
(Insert joke of your choice about Republican Senators sucking Trump’s dick, and whether that would constitute an impeachable offense.)
LMFAO!
The amusing irony of the Clinton impeachment is that I believe lying to the Grand Jury cost Clinton his law license. The ethical standard for being an attorney is higher than that required to be President.
😉
If it makes you feel better, I was against the Clinton impeachment and the first Trump impeachment.
But a 2nd impeachment should be on the table. Using the threat of it to force resignation is the preferable route. If Trump is too stubborn, the I believe in following through on threats.
Just to be clear and not cute, Clinton was impeached for lying to Congress. The coverup is always worse than the crime, or at least it used to be.
The Republican Party was still drunk with power after the Revolution of 1994. They actually believed that it was important for the President to tell the truth and not commit perjury. My how times have changed.
Tell me, is it a quaint notion to expect the President to respect the law, regardless of the reason?
There needs to be impeachment both to appease somewhat the Democratic electorate, and to force GOP members to take a stance that would have long term repercussions.
Another case of once may not have been enough…Brazil reports COVID-19 reinfection with a mutation which was first found in South Africa
A Trump Mob in Los Angeles Attacked a Black Woman on Same Day as U.S. Capitol Terror link to theroot.com
Coming soon to a US city near you….
Two choices for the GOP
Part with Trump-become a 30% polling party
Stay with Trump-become a 30% polling party
There is a better way. Delay then retire and let new leadership come in. They are not going to let 71 or so million voters get away. Both parties when faced with a schism within ranks find ways to keep together. An exception is the Whig party in the 1950’s but that broke apart because of irreconcilable differences over chattel slavery. We don’t have gulf like that now. Today the differences are over economic prosperity or rather the lack of for most of the population.
Economic issues have always been the most fertile ground for authoritarian demagogues who really have no answers but have been very adept at creating enemies.
“Only I can fix it” is their basic rallying cry.
What answers has the Republican party come up with lately? Demogoguery. Enemies of America. Socialism. On and on.
You mean straight, upright politicians should ignore the people who are struggling economically and focus on the wealthy who fill their coffers? Why not. That’s what we have had for forty years. Maybe someone should try a different path.
Different path? Forty years of Republicans saying, “what problem” “welfare queens” and “trickle down”, all the while screaming about “socialism”.
Govenor Noem of South Dakota, called the new senators from Georgia “communists” yesterday.
The Republican party has played the same line for 40 years, yes.
And that is why they ended up at a demagogue like Trump. No answers, just enemies and jingoism.
You hit the nail on the head. Both parties went for the big bucks and became corrupted. You can either create a new party but the history of third parties isn’t very good. It’s better to take over an existing party and work from their. The AOC wing of the Dems are doing that now and the radical used-to-be Trumpers are doing that to the Republicans. There is a change of generations. The leadership of the Dems and Republicans are dinosaurs and on their way out.
Please bring back the editing function!!!
That functionality on TheStreet is somehow tied to their spam filter/DNOS options.
Every time Mish allows it, the site is flooded with DNOS attacks.
Joe Biden is not a demagogue? Get real.
He’s not a demagogue. He may be a corrupt career politician, but he’s incapable of leading a cult, for his supporters adhere to facts.
“his supporters adhere to facts”. Biden’s self proclaimed reason for running was the “fine people” hoax. His veins were bulging as he said it.
Yes, like I said, his supporters adhere to facts. That makes them immune to a cult leader.
That’s the biggest load of hooey I’ve seen in a long time. In this time and place facts don’t matter to anyone. People believe what they believe, and pick and choose from the available facts to reinforce their beliefs. Anyone who believe they see all the “facts” has succeeded in deluding themselves
Thanks for proving my point, traitor.
Not much to prove. A little humility would serve you well.,
That you tell me humility would serve me well is evidence of your hubris.
I don’t claim to be humble. Not in this matter.
My son is convinced neither will happen. In his opinion, big Tech will make Trump vanish. He believes that they have sufficient monopoly power that they can block him from speaking, and block any app or site that permits him to speak, and thus, within months, he will be forgotten. That’s an interesting prediction. We shall see.
Erasing Trump is a favor to the GOP.
Erasing him quietly without forcing the GOP to take sides is the biggest possible favor they could do for the Party.
Easy choice. One is capped at 30% support. The other, with time, has upside.
Just in case anyone forgot, he was bludgeoned to death with a fire extinguisher by a mob urged on by the President of the United States trying to overthrow the United States government.
Back the badge. Anyone in the U.S. Capitol at the time deserves capital punishment.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/08/us/politics/police-officer-killed-capitol.html?action=click&module=Top Stories&pgtype=Homepage
As degenerate as those people are, some were there solely to exercise their 1rst amendment right to redress, it’s those who forcefully entered the building, and more so – those who went in armed or openly threatening to do harm that should answer.
“Anyone in the U.S. Capitol at the time deserves capital punishment.” — Mr. Purple
McConnell and Blount and others simply lack the moral courage to to the right thing, They could put Congress in emergency session and complete an impeachment trial in a single day if they wanted to…..they just don’t want to.
And what it means is that the US clearly lacks any way to take down a dangerous President…the PROCESS we have is flawed by partisan politics…It looked like that already, based on every historical instance of impeachment being invoked……and now we will know for sure. If it can’t happen now, exactly how is it EVER supposed to happen?
This symbolic move is a way to try to pressure Trump to quit…that’s all it amounts to…it might work, but it’s lame.
“the PROCESS we have is flawed by partisan politics…”
The process should require more than one Party. That’s not a flaw.
The flaw is McConnell. Too cautious to react quickly. His instincts should be telling him that the Trump supporters are already lost to the GOP, that to save any remnants of the Party, he needs to cleanse it of Trump’s toxicity.
He can spare his caucus a vote by using the potential of one as leverage to pressure Trump to resign.
The issue as I see it has to do with how the Constitution has been used as an excuse to claim that sitting Presidents are immune from criminal prosecution (because we have impeachment spelled out as the ONLY legal solution)…… to a POTUS that winks at the law…which Trump has done since day one……not just on the big stuff…..but at every turn in the road.
He got elected and immediately let it be known he would thumb his nose at the emoluments clause……he used his office shamelessly to push business to his hotels….a membership at Mar-a-Lago became a must-have for those who wished to get the President’s ear.
It’s really stupid that in order to make a popular President follow the law, it takes a 2/3 vote in the Senate. Presidents should be legally liable for breaking existing laws that have been specifically set up to prevent malfeasance. It should NOT require politicians to decide what is really a judicial matter.
With the partisan aspect of impeachment, it turns a simple criminal matter into a popularity contest. In not a single instance has a sitting President ever been convicted. Now we have a much more dangerous situation….a President who is deranged and incapable of telling right from wrong…..and he will walk into the sunset, with a nice pension and medical benefits and lifetime security protection.
And nothing to keep him from stirring up more insurrection except a Twitter ban.
Some great system……it’s completely useless is what it is.
I agree, this and the extraordinary ability to pardon which extends to those who may have committed crimes in service of you such as Stone, Manafort and many others did, who have and are about to be pardoned, is outrageous.
The exclusion from Presidential criminal liability is only based on a DOJ memo written some 30 or so years ago, I think, and is not any hard and fast law or part of the Constitution. Of course, it benefits the party in power greatly, so they’ll gladly keep that memo in place while they’re in office.
I would favor changing that memo so that sitting Presidents are not immune from criminal prosecution, but the tricky part is having to define a level of crime at which the offending President can be automatically removed if convicted. Again though, it would usually be up to the AG to determine to prosecute, and as you saw with Barr, he buried and refused to pursue many such cases (not just related to trump, but of cronies too) on a partisan basis. Maybe there needs to be an independent office for that particular situation of a President charged with a serious crime that could result in removal.
The Presidential pardon power turns the President into a King.
Very good points. Thank you for that.
“And what it means is that the US clearly lacks any way to take down a dangerous President…”
Any LEGAL way.
IF a conviction is gained (non-zero chance, but dependent on Republican action), Trump can then be barred from future office. That slim chance is worth it.
“It’s really stupid that in order to make a popular President follow the law, it takes a 2/3 vote in the Senate.”
Clearly the Founders intended the Senate to be a monkeywrench in the works of government. And I highly doubt they foresaw that white supremacy would be threatened.
Once this rebellion is quelled, it is past time for a Constitutonal Convention.
The Senate was specifically devised as a compromise to the Federalists to prevent “Tyranny of the majority”.
Ironically, the Senate has instead allowed Tyranny of the minority, while the latter “majority” threat still exists, the fact that the people just voted a Democrat super-majority means we’re about to see a rebalance, hopefully.
Personally, I think the greatest threat to Democracy is money in politics, campaign funding since Buckley/Valeo and Citizens United has become legalized bribery.
George Washington correctly warned against political parties.
In a perfect world, there are no parties, just candidates with policy positions that are public record. In an even more perfect world, only policies are voted on and officeholders are selected by lot and legally bound to execute said policies.
The system as presently constructed is a hopelessly corrupt mess, probably by design. But unless it is changed legally, the alternative is civil war.
As much as I despise McConnell, he’s right, he can’t do a thing without unanimous consent, until the 20th the Senate is still GOP majority.
The Trump supporters who are chanting “Hang Mike Pence” are too stupid to realize that they’re doing Pence a favor.
They’re scrubbing the Trump off of Pence.
NEVER.
Not to mention that the Republican senators would lose a sizable part of their electorate if they did it which is what I believe the Democrat leadership would love.
Yup, that’s why McConnell is frozen like a deer looking into headlights.
He needs to accept that all options are bad (from the GOP perspective), and this is the least bad option.
Definitely not easy for him.
I see no reason why the expiration of Trump’s term in office would moot his impeachment. Sen. Schumer will be majority leader at noon 1/20/21 and can continue the process to completion.
There are subsidiary issues that depend on conviction, such as a simple majority vote to bar Trump from ever again holding public office. Not to mention getting Republican senators on record as supporting a coup.
Conviction requires 2/3 of senators present, not 67 senators. It is possible that 17 Republican senators will absent themselves to provide the 2/3 majority. A quorum is 51 senators.
McConnell making a rare set of double blunders here. First with the $2000 vote, and now letting Trump ride off too easily.
McConnell should be threatening impeachment now, to pressure Trump to resign (which should be the ultimate goal).
If he wants to save the Party he needs to stop making it his primary goal to prevent the Senate from voting on anything that splits the caucuses’ votes. Some Senators want to go on record voting to remove Trump. Those who don’t will pay a price.
Running out the clock is too tempting for him now. At heart, he’s a coward. He’s betting on the short memory of the electorate and the near perfect security of his Kentucky seat, now with a fresh six years.
Six DAYS is an eternity in modern politics. Six YEARS is forever.