With only eight days remaining in President Trump's term, the House of Representatives is barrelling toward a second impeachment vote in the coming days as outrage about the president's role in the storming of the Capitol by his supporters last week continues to reverberate throughout Washington, D.C.
House Democrats are unveiling their impeachment resolution following last week's riots at the Capitol. Also, the FBI is warning of plans for armed protests at all 50 state capitols and in Washington ahead of the inauguration. All that and all that matters in today's Eye Opener. Your world in 90 seconds.
Two years ago this week the House, led by a new Democratic majority, passed historic legislation virtually moments after the 116th Congress was sworn in. Maine's largest paper, The Portland Press Herald,took a moment to shine a light on H.R. 1 and what its voting rights and election transparency regulations would mean. Back then I wrote in C&J that "these five sentences are worth framing." And since framed things are meant to be revisited occasionally, this seems like a good time, given that we'll soon control all the levers of lawmaking and can both re-introduce the law and enact it with President Biden’s blessing:
The first bill brought forward by Democrats [is] a question—as in, what kind of government do you want?
Continued...
Do you want a government that is fair, one in which the influence of Americans of modest means can at least hope to contend with the influence of the rich and powerful?
Voters did their job to pull our feet from the fascism fire. Time for you to do yours, Democratic muckety mucks.
Do you want a government that is open and transparent, one where conflicts of interest are banished or at least disclosed, one where the needs of constituents have a chance against the transactional relationships between elected officials and the money behind them?
Do you want a government that reflects the electorate that it serves, one where the right to vote is universal—and not a function of where you live, how you vote, how much you make or how you look?
With H.R. 1, House Democrats answer “yes” to those questions.
Said soon-to-be-powerless Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell at the time: "It may pass the House, but not the Senate." Uh huh. We'll see about that after next Wednesday.
And now, our feature presentation...
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Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, January 12, 2021
Note: This just in from Chief Justice Roberts: "Me execute oath give eight days faithfully!"
And this just in from the president-elect: “Somebody tell that dog-faced pony soldier oath-goofer to write it down on a three-by-five card this time, ladies and gentlemen. I mean it, no joke. That’s number one. Number two: see number one.”
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By the Numbers:
The whole thing goes down in 17 days.
Days 'til inauguration day: 8
Days 'til the Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino gets imploded in Atlantic City: 17
Percent of Americans polled by PBS NewsHour/Marist who blame Trump for the coup attempt on January 6th: 64%
Percent of Americans who want Trump to be immediately removed from office, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll: 57%
Percent who described the participants in the attempted coup as either “criminals” or “fools": 79%
Amount Quebec citizens will be fined if they violate an 8pm Covid-related curfew that's in effect for a month: $6,000
Number of marijuana stores, cultivation facilities, and licensed product manufacturing facilities, respectively, in Maine now: 15 / 16 / 9
CHEERS to double dipping for democracy. Anyone not living inside the Fox News bubble who's been paying attention the last four years knows that the list of impeachment charges against the current president could be as long as your arm. Last year we got him on two counts for his "perfect call" with Ukraine (I can't wait 'til President Biden release the entire transcript of that.) But those were nothing compared to the size of the one that got shoved down his throat yesterday by the House, making him the first president to be so wretched he got impeached twice. An embarrassment for the entire Republican party, which is currently behaving like a drunk waking up from a bender with pork rinds stuck to his head and no idea how to extricate themselves from the gutter:
The "incitement of insurrection" article of impeachment was introduced by Reps. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and David Cicilline, D-R.I., along with more than 210 Democratic co-sponsors. […]
Yeehaw, let’s do it.
"President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United states and its institutions of Government He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transfer of power, and imperiled a coequal branch of Government. He thereby betrayed his trust as President, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States," the article says.
The impeachment article also cited Trump's call with the Georgia Republican secretary of state where he urged him to "find" enough votes for Trump to win the state [and] the Constitution's 14th Amendment, noting that it "prohibits any person who has 'engaged in insurrection or rebellion against' the United States" from holding office.
The House will likely vote tomorrow. As the members of Congress are casting their votes on behalf of their constituents, the Founding Fathers will be looking down and muttering themselves, "We had to write the 14th to stop that guy???" Yeah. Sorry 'bout that.
CHEERS to Team Biden Super Spooks Action League!!! Now we know who #46 is sending to the basement of [location of undisclosed location deleted] to take on the covert evildoers who have spent the last four years invading and attacking our nation's elections, utilities, and national security infrastructure with impunity. Since the Trump administration is still in charge for 8 more days, C&J was able to waltz into the basement of [location of undisclosed location deleted again, and if you force me to delete it a third time you're all going to Gitmo] and steal these exclusive details from the dossier on CIA Director nominee Dr. William Joseph Burns:
» Born 1956 at Fort Bragg, North Carolina
» B.A. in history from la Salle University in Philadelphia; Marshall Scholar at Oxford, earning a Masters and doctorate in Philosophy
Dr. William Burns tries on his official CIA fedora.
» Spent 33 years in the foreign service, including stints as ambassador to Jordan and Russia, Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs, and Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs.
» Speaks Russian, Arabic and French
» Awards earned: all of them including the coveted EGOT.
» Does he like long walks on the beach at sunset with a daiquiri in one hand and the reins of his pet llama "Porter Goss" in the other? He could tell you, but then he'd have to kill you.
» He might kill you, anyway, just for that attitude you seem to be copping about the llama.
» No, he will not "drop it already." You started it!
Before this escalates any further, I suggest we all print out the above, eat it, and never speak of it again. Welcome aboard, sir. I've never heard of you, and you were never here.
JEERS to our hunka hunka burnin' planet. How hot was 2020? Hotter than Donald Trump's brain cell after he got his twitter account taken away forever. Hotter than the seat a Wall Street bankster sits on as Rep. Katie Porter pulls out her white board and says, "My first question to you is…" It was so hot that Franklin Graham began telling his flock that unrepentant sinners would start being re-routed from hell to fry for eternity in Oklahoma. It was hotter than the steam coming out of Greta Thunberg's ears as her pleas for action climate change were ignored for another year. Yeah…that hot:
2020 has officially become the joint-hottest year on record, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service has confirmed.
The year, which ties with 2016, rounds off the hottest decade globally ever on record as the impacts of climate change intensify.
Word of investment advice: put all your money in ACME Rubber Rafts, LLC.
In 2016 the extreme heat was partly attributed to the end of an El Niño event, a huge ocean-atmosphere climate interaction which results in warming in sea surface temperatures across swathes of the Pacific Ocean. 2020 had no such event.
2021 is on track to fill the record books with more awful heat. Even worse, more of my awful heat metaphors.
JEERS to another waste of Air Force One frequent-flier miles. Seizing on the chance to rehabilitate his legacy after leading the attempted seizure-by-force of the United States government, President Trump travels to Alamo, Texas (not the actual Alamo as originally reported) to deliver the final construction invoice to Mexico through one of the slats in his glorious—and gloriously-scalable—border wall that no one is happy with:
[The wall is] far more than critics wanted, far less than he wanted, and none it funded by Mexico.
Folks, I’m starting to believe this guy.
At last count, some 452 miles has been built. About 12 miles of that is along segments of the border without any barrier before. The rest replaces shorter and less sturdy barrier.
The project has cost $15 billion so far, just $4.5 billion of that provided by Congress. Trump diverted the rest from the military budget when lawmakers balked at full funding. … By the time he leaves office, it will be about 40% fenced.
During his trip, he'll spend some time seething over the fact that the prestigious 2022 PGA Championship, originally scheduled at one of his golf resorts, is being moved somewhere else that's not owned and operated by a tinpot dictator-wannabe. Smart move. As soon as he leaves office, everyone’s gonna desert his properties and leave him with no revenue and lots of bills, leading to their inevitable—wait for it—“Fore!”...closure. (The dog’s punchline. Not bad for a mutt.)
CHEERS to my li'l inaugural checklist. Since next Wednesday is going to be a nonstop whirling dervish of crazy, I'm writing down the essentials I'll need to adequately participate in the events of January 20, 2021:
» Hope
» Optimism
» Awe
» Relief
» Euphoria
» A gnawing sense of hard-wired cynicism fueled by the creeping yet irrational suspicion that this guy is going to act like a typical politician, over-compromising and under-reaching, ultimately ending up just another in a long string of disappointments and paving the way for President Eric Trump.
And also a giant wheel of cheese embossed with the presidential seal. Low-salt, please.
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Ten years ago in C&J: January 12, 2011
CHEERS to Day 4. All of the wounded victims still at Tucson’s University Medical Center continue to improve, according to doctors. As for Congresswoman Giffords, her neurosurgeon says she has a 100 percent chance of survival now. And she continues making progress in performing simple tasks. C&J slipped a spycam into ICU and here's a transcript of this morning's routine:
Doctor: If your name is Gabby, lift your index finger. [Lifts index finger]
Doctor: If the current month is January, lift two fingers. [Lifts two fingers]
Doctor: Can you mop the floor and make me breakfast? [Lifts middle finger]
Excellent.
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And just one more…
Today is pill-a-palooza at a pharmacy near you.
CHEERS to America's dispensers-in-white. Today is National Pharmacist Day, when we acknowledge a profession whose members quietly go about their task of filling prescriptions correctly, promptly and safely before ringing them up along with our peanut M&Ms, People magazine, Swiffer pad replacements and dental floss.
They'll celebrate the usual way, by inviting customers to pick a goodie from the giant bowl containing pills they found on the floor over the course of the year.
Usual caveat applies: if you pick the one shaped like a dodecahedron, allow yourself three days to come down.
Have a trippy Tuesday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial
“I just had such a strong reaction to Cheers and Jeers and it caught me off guard. Usually I save my crying for special occasions…like when I’m pregnant!”
We begin today’s roundup with analysis by John Cassidy in The New Yorker on the need for accountability in the wake of the domestic terror attack on Capitol Hill:
Despite all the outrage sparked by last week’s riot, Trump still has grounds for believing that he won’t receive any immediate sanctions for openly inciting an insurrection. It’s conceivable that he could be punished further down the road, but even that is far from certain. Repeating a tragic pattern that has been evident since he launched his first Presidential bid, in 2015, the American political system is proving too weak and divided to deal with the threat he poses. [...]
What’s required is a way to punish Trump for his sedition, make sure he can’t run for President again, and deprive him of the oxygen he so craves. The permanent ban by Twitter goes a long way toward meeting the third goal, but the first two are arguably even more important.
In other democracies, a leader who tried to overthrow an election result and incited a violent insurrection might well be cooling his heels in prison by now. In this country, the job of policing the President falls largely on the legislative branch. For four years, it has failed dismally to carry out this task. Even after the unprecedented events of last week, it’s far from clear that Congress will prove up to the task now. But this time, surely, and for the sake of American democracy, Trump must be held accountable.
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, passed in the aftermath of the Civil War, bars Trump from holding another federal office if he is found to have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the Constitution of the United States. The finding could be accomplished by a simple majority vote of both houses, in contrast to the requirement in impeachment proceedings that the Senate vote to convict by a two-thirds majority. Congress would simply need to declare that Trump engaged in an act of “insurrection or rebellion” by encouraging the attack on the Capitol. Under the 14th Amendment, Trump could run for the White House again only if he were able to persuade a future Congress to, “by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”
More on this option from John Nichols at The Nation:
After everything that has happened over the past week, it is easy to imagine that Trump has written himself out of contention for any public office. But that is not the case. Trump is still plotting, still scheming, still campaigning—as was amply illustrated by his planned trip on Tuesday to Alamo, Tex., to highlight his crusade to erect a wall on the border between the US and Mexico.
To imagine that Trump will fade away after January 20 requires the denial of everything Americans know about the president’s massive ego, his aversion to being seen as a loser, and his determination to avenge his defeat in the 2020 election. That is why former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich and others have focused on the importance not merely of holding Trump to account for past actions but of assuring that he does not extend the threat to the republic by positioning himself as a president-in-exile after he leaves office. “We must,” says Reich, “ensure that Donald Trump can never hold public office again.”
For a long time Republican elites imagined that they could exploit racism and conspiracy theorizing while remaining focused on a plutocratic agenda. But with the rise first of the Tea Party, then of Donald Trump, the cynics found that the crazies were actually in control, and that they wanted to destroy democracy, not cut tax rates on capital gains.
And Republican elites have, with few exceptions, accepted their new subservient status.
The Washington Post editorial board lays out the ideas being floating relating to impeachment, including delaying the trial or creating a blue-ribbon trial:
So far, much of the conversation has been about finding a way to suitably punish Mr. Trump. That is essential. But the goal must also be to provide maximum accountability with a minimum of harm to the Biden administration.
On a final note, The New York Times in its call for impeachment also calls for accountability for Trump’s enablers:
Mr. Trump may not have called directly for this behavior, but there is no question that he encouraged it and then refused for hours to condemn it, even as the whole world watched in horror. When he finally asked for rioters to stop and go home, he continued to claim the election had been stolen. [...]
ultimately, there can be no republic if leaders foment a violent overthrow of the government if they lose an election.
Mr. Trump is not the only person at fault. Many Republican lawmakers riled up his supporters for weeks with false claims of election rigging and continued to object to the electoral vote even after the attack. The 14th Amendment bars from office any federal or state lawmaker who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” or given “aid or comfort” to those who have. Congressional leaders will need to reckon with which of their colleagues require censure for their actions, and perhaps even expulsion.
The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, Carolyn Fiddler, and Matt Booker, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar.
Leading Off
●OR-05: Democratic Rep. Kurt Schrader prompted a massive outcry—and may have opened himself up to a primary challenge—when he opposed impeaching Donald Trump and compared the idea to a "lynching" on a call with fellow House Democrats on Friday. Just hours after his remarks were first reported, Schrader issued an apology, and the following day he came out in favor of impeachment, but the damage may have already been done.
In response to Schrader's comments, Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, who represents a neighboring district, took the unusual step of publicly upbraiding her colleague. "Comparing a lynching to holding the President accountable is hurtful and insensitive and ignores the overt white supremacy on display during the insurrection Wednesday," she said. Of more immediate impact, Schrader's longtime consultant, Mark Wiener, immediately dropped the congressman as a client, saying, "Comparing the impeachment of a treasonous President who encouraged white supremacists to violently storm the Capitol to a 'lynching' is shameful and indefensible."
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party in Polk County, which makes up about 10% of the 5th District, demanded that Schrader resign, citing not only his statements on impeachment but his vote last month against $2,000 COVID relief checks, which made him one of just two Democrats to oppose the measure (along with now-former Rep. Dan Lipinski). And Milwaukie Mayor Mark Gamba, who ran against Schrader from the left in last year's primary, said he'd give it another go and started soliciting donations online.
Gamba, however, didn't raise much money and lost by a wide 69-23 margin, which may explain why, in other comments, he indicated an openness to supporting an alternative option. One possibility would be state Rep. Paul Evans, who almost ran for this seat when it was last open in 2008 (a race ultimately won by Schrader) and whose legislative district is contained entirely in the 5th.
In fact, a great many Democratic legislators represent turf that overlaps with Schrader's, with state Senate Majority Leader Rob Wagner and state Sen. Deb Patterson among the more prominent. In the House, aside from Evans, potential candidates could include Reps. Teresa Alonso Leon, Mark Meek, Karin Power, Rachel Prusak, and Andrea Salinas, among others.
One of Oregon's most prominent politicians also hails from the area: newly elected Secretary of State Shemia Fagan, whose former district in the state Senate overlapped partly with Schrader's House seat. With voting rights under siege, and as first in line to the governorship (Oregon has no lieutenant governor), Fagan likely has her sights elsewhere, but she'd be a formidable challenger.
Oregon's 5th has long been swingy territory, but it shifted noticeably to the left last year, supporting Joe Biden 54-44, according to Daily Kos Elections' calculations, after backing Hillary Clinton 48-44 in 2016. Schrader actually ran behind the top of the ticket, however, turning in a 52-45 win against an unheralded Republican foe. The district currently takes in Portland's southern suburbs and the Salem area but will likely be reconfigured in redistricting, particularly since the state is on track to add a sixth House seat.
Senate
●AK-Sen: In response to last week's terrorist attack on the Capitol and Donald Trump's role in fomenting it, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski suggested she might leave the GOP, saying, "[I]f the Republican Party has become nothing more than the party of Trump, I sincerely question whether this is the party for me." Murkowski later clarified, though, that she would "[a]bsolutely, unequivocally not" join the Democratic caucus in the Senate.
If she did, however, become an independent, she'd still have a well-defined path to re-election in 2022 thanks to a new ballot measure Alaska voters passed in November that radically reforms how elections are conducted in the state. Under Measure 2, all candidates from all parties will now run together on a single primary ballot, with the top four vote-getters advancing to a November general election. Voters would then choose a winner from that quartet by means of an instant runoff, greatly reducing the chance of a spoiler effect and giving popular, relatively moderate politicians like Murkowski the chance to prevail even without a party banner.
●PA-Sen: The same day he told the Philadelphia Inquirer that he was taking a "serious look" at a Senate bid, Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman filed paperwork with the FEC—and he's already put his nascent campaign committee to good use. In a press release, Fetterman says he's raised $500,000 since his remarks first appeared in the Inquirer on Friday, via 15,000 contributions.
Meanwhile, former Republican Rep. Ryan Costello, who unsuccessfully tried to goad Fetterman with some feeble Twitter trash-talk about his own interest in a Senate bid, is reportedly "expected to form an exploratory committee" sometime "soon." Costello has set himself up for a difficult GOP primary, though, since he said he'd campaign on an explicitly anti-Trump platform: In response to an RNC spokesperson slamming Republicans for having "abandoned" Trump, Costello recently tweeted, "If I run I will literally take this entire bullshit head on."
Governors
●CT-Gov: Connecticut Post columnist Dan Haar describes New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart, who last year confirmed she was considering another bid for governor, as a "likely Republican entrant" for the race to take on Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont in 2022, though we haven't heard directly from her since the election. Stewart briefly sought the GOP nod in 2018 but dropped out to run for lieutenant governor instead; however, she lost that primary 48-33 to state Sen. Joe Markley. Since her failed bids for higher office, she's sought to push the Connecticut GOP in a moderate direction in a bid to regain relevance and offered some very indirect criticism of Trump in the wake of last week's insurrection at the Capitol.
●MA-Gov: While Republican incumbent's Charlie Baker's meager fundraising in recent months has fueled speculation that he'll retire in 2022, the Salem News reports the governor's $165,000 haul for December was his largest monthly total in over two years. Baker himself has not publicly announced if he'll seek a third term next year.
●NM-Gov: Republican state Rep. Rebecca Dow says she's weighing a bid for governor but will not decide until after the conclusion of New Mexico's legislative session, which is scheduled to start next week and end on March 20. This is a very common formulation you'll hear from state lawmakers across the country as they contemplate running for higher office, so it's helpful to keep Ballotpedia's guide to session dates for all state legislatures bookmarked.
House
●AL-05: Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey all but called for a primary challenge to Rep. Mo Brooks, a fellow Republican, after Brooks helped foment last week's violent assault on the Capitol, saying, "If the people of the 5th District believe their views are not being properly represented, then they need to express their disappointment directly to Congressman Brooks and, if necessary, hold him accountable at the ballot box."
Just before the invasion of the Capitol complex, Brooks incited the pro-Trump brigades that had descended on Washington, D.C. to overturn the results of the November election, telling them, "Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass." Brooks refused to back down following the violence, saying "I make no apology" for instigating the attacks and adding, "I call again for kicking that 'ass' all the way back to the communist dictatorships that 'ass' now worships."
In 2017, after Brooks launched an ultimately fruitless challenge to appointed GOP Sen. Luther Strange, some pissed-off establishment Republicans sought to primary Brooks in response and rallied around Army veteran Clayton Hinchman. Brooks wound up prevailing the following year, but by a relatively soft 61-39 margin. Hinchman hasn't said anything about a possible rematch, but during his race, he chided Brooks for preferencing "ideology over pragmatism," a criticism that suggests he might side with Ivey's views of the congressman.
●NJ-02: A consultant for Democrat Amy Kennedy, who lost to Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew 52-46 in November, tells the New Jersey Globe that Kennedy hasn't yet considered whether to run again but says she's furious at the congressman for voting to overturn the results of the 2020 elections following Wednesday's assault on the Capitol by pro-Trump mobs that left five people dead. Assemblyman Adam Taliaferro, who himself was a potential candidate against Van Drew last year, also encouraged Kennedy to seek a rematch, though he didn't rule out a bid of his own should she decline.
The Globe mentions a bunch of other possible contenders, including Assemblyman Vince Mazzeo, Cape May County Democratic Party chair Brendan Sciarra, Cumberland County Commissioner Joe Derella, and former union leader Richard Tolson. Montclair State University professor Brigid Callahan Harrison, who lost the Democratic primary to Kennedy 62-22, is another option. None of these would-be candidates have spoken about their interest yet.
●NJ-05: Former Rep. Scott Garrett is all but guaranteed to lose his specially created job at the Securities and Exchange Commission when Joe Biden becomes president, and remarkably, the New Jersey Globe reports that some fellow Republicans think he could make a comeback bid for his old seat. Garrett himself didn't rule out the possibility when contacted by the Globe, saying only, "I appreciate your phone call. I am no longer a public figure."
But unless Republicans hit the redistricting jackpot, Garrett is unlikely to find himself at the top of the GOP's wishlist. Garrett was ousted after seven terms in Congress by Democrat Josh Gottheimer after his Wall Street allies abandoned him thanks to his virulent anti-gay rhetoric, and he was so unpopular with his former colleagues that the Senate refused to advance his nomination when Donald Trump named him to run the Export-Import Bank—a federal agency that Garrett had long sought to abolish.
Garrett later wound up with an even better-paying position (at $215,000 a year) in the office of the general counsel at the SEC, which Politico reported had been set up for him alone. Garrett was hired without any sort of competitive process, or even having to submit a job application, even though the commission was in the midst of a hiring freeze. As the Globe notes, though, that plum gig is unlikely to survive the coming Biden housecleaning.
●NM-01: Former state Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn announced last week he would run for this Albuquerque-area seat if Rep. Deb Haaland is confirmed as Joe Biden's secretary of the interior. While Albuquerque Journal notes Dunn plans to run as an independent, he has spent time as a member of both the Republican and Libertarian parties.
Dunn was the GOP nominee for state land commissioner in 2014, narrowly turning back Democratic incumbent Ray Powell 50.07-49.93. In 2018, Dunn became a Libertarian and sought the party's nomination for Senate that year. After he won the nomination, however, he decided to drop out of the race (former Gov. Gary Johnson was named his replacement and took 15% of the vote).
The GOP is already a longshot in a seat that backed Biden by a 60-37 spread, but Dunn's presence could make things even more difficult for Team Red. This would represent the inverse of the last special election this district hosted in 1998, when a Green Party candidate took 13% of the vote, allowing Republican Heather Wilson to narrowly win.
Legislatures
●AK State House: The Alaska Supreme Court has rejected a challenge by former state Rep. Lance Pruitt, who as minority leader had been the most senior Republican in the state House, to his 11-vote loss in the November elections, upholding Democrat Liz Snyder as the winner. The decision confirms that Democrats and their allies will have control over 20 seats in the 40-member chamber as the legislature gears up to start its new session on Jan. 19, though they'll need at least one more Republican defection to take control.
As Speaker Nancy Pelosi was forced to huddle in a secure bunker during the Capitol riots, several of her young aides spent hours sheltered under a conference table in the speaker’s suite as armed rioters pounded the door with menacing taunts of “Where’s Nancy?”
When Pelosi was reunited with her staff hours after the deadly siege at the Capitol, the speaker didn’t even have to ask — she could see the terror reflected in their eyes.
Now as the House prepares to impeach President Donald Trump this week for inciting the insurrection that shook the core of U.S. democracy and left five dead, the undertaking for Pelosi isn’t simply a matter of politics.
“It's really hard to address this subject without getting emotional about it,” Pelosi told Democrats on a private call Monday afternoon. “We're very passionate about how we protect and defend our country and how offended we were about this assault perpetrated by the commander in chief.”
The speaker views the invasion of the Capitol as more than just an attempt to overturn the results of the presidential election by a pro-Trump mob. For Pelosi, it was also an attack on the people she calls her family — the lawmakers, support staffers and aides who are the lifeblood of the Capitol — and the building that she considers sacred and has called a second home since birth, when her father was a congressman.
Democrats are now moving to impeach Trump for an unprecedented second time in the remaining days of his presidency, charging him with high crimes and misdemeanors for goading the rioters at the Capitol last week, who killed at least one police officer in their hunt for members of Congress, including Pelosi.
A week ago, another impeachment would have seemed out of the realm of possibility, with the Democratic Party just days away from controlling all three levers of power in Washington, D.C., and finally bidding farewell to Trump.
But afterthose several terrifying hours on Wednesday, Trump’s own supporters made the Capitol one of the least safe places in Washington, D.C., and Pelosi and her entire Democratic Caucus cannot forget it.
“I think Nancy also looks at this and says, how do you — when the president has put your people at risk of harm or death — not respond to that in the strongest way possible?” Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) said in an interview.
The emotional toll will have a lasting effect on Pelosi and her caucus. About two dozen Democrats were locked inside the chamber on Wednesday, some frantically calling their families in case they needed to say goodbye, as members of an armed mob eventuallyforced their way in. Many more lawmakers barricaded themselves inside their offices, where they worked with staff to push desks and couches in front of the doors.
“We are a family. Those were the words used on the caucus call, over and over again,” said Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.), who was among those members in the chamber. She recalled when Pelosi and other Democrats gathered by phone for the first time since the attack on an emotional caucus call. “She talked about her staff, how she was so concerned for her staff and other people’s staff.”
Pelosi was one of multiple Democrats on that 3.5-hour call Fridayto encourage members and their staff to seek counseling for the trauma they experienced that day. Support staff, too, should have access to the same mental health services, Pelosi said, noting how they too are an integral part of the Capitol nucleus.
“Some of the maintenance people call me ‘Momma,’” Pelosi said on the call, according to multiple Democrats.
Pelosi has repeatedly urged both lawmakers and staff to seek out mental health support after living through the horrific assault on the Capitol, including on another long call with her caucus on Monday.
For Pelosi and many others, the images of Wednesday’s violence are haunting — rioters in tactical gear storming through the Capitol, ransacking offices, including her own, before turning on police, attempting to crush one in a doorway and dragging another from the building and beating him with a flag pole. Hours earlier, Trump had instructed his supporters to march to the Capitol, vowing the election was rigged and he would never concede.
As she steers her caucus through the emotional wreckage of the attack, Pelosi has also,once again, become the lead voice on impeaching a president who has also been one of her biggest antagonists for four years. Unlike the long on-ramp to her support for impeachment in 2019, this time Pelosi embraced the move within a matter of hours.
“One of the things that people don’t appreciate about her is she has a really heartfelt, deep reverence for our Capitol, democracy and the presidency,” said House Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), a close ally of the speaker.
The rest of Pelosi’s caucus has quickly come to the same conclusion as her, with very few exceptions. Democrats announced Monday they will vote Wednesday to impeach Trump after securing enough votes to do so, unless Vice President Mike Pence takes unilateral action before then to declare the president unfit for office.
It’s a remarkable display of caucus unity for Pelosi, who fought her way back to the speakership two years ago after a group of Democratic objectors tried to end her long leadership tenure. And many in her caucus were already predicting a tense atmosphere within the caucus over the next two years, which they saw as inevitable when a big-tent party has such a razor-thin majority.
Instead, nearly every single House Democrat — including freshmen who were sworn in just days ago — quickly lined up in favor of impeachment.
Even some of the caucus’ most pro-impeachment Democrats were shocked by the speed of their caucus and their leadership’s support.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) — who was pulled from the chamber just as rioters breached the Capitol on Wednesday — began talking about impeachment almost immediately after she reached a secure location. She was in the same room as Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and a handful of others.
As they sat together for hours, Omar approached House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer to tell him she would draft an article of impeachment for Trump’s role inciting the riots. He encouraged her to do what she needed to, according to multiple people familiar with the discussions.
Across the Capitol complex, a group of House Judiciary members — Reps. David Cicilline of Rhode Island and Ted Lieu of California — were also barricaded inside an office together as they first floated the idea of drafting more impeachment articles.
As those Democrats quickly began circulating their draft, Pelosi, too, was on her phone nonstop.Since the attack, she has spoken to nearly every member of her caucus, fielding texts and calls late into the night — not unlike the Democrats’ first path to impeachment in 2019.
Twenty-four hours after the Capitol attack began, Pelosi took to the podium to deliver a decisive warning — Trump was a seditious threat to the country and if Pence didn’t take immediate action to remove him, Democrats would.
Speaking in a building nearly empty but for the staff working to repair the damage, Pelosi described Trump’s role in “the gleeful desecration of the U.S. Capitol” and the targeting of members of Congress as “horrors that will forever stain our nation's history.”
Two years ago, Pelosi spent months carefully managing every step her caucus took toward impeaching Trump. She listened carefully to the moderate freshmen who helped Democrats win back the House, and only vowed to move ahead when a sizable group of them — all with a background in national security — announced their decision to vote yes.
Democrats across the caucus, including those national security-focused members, say the decision to impeach was simpler after what they lived through Wednesday.
"I genuinely believe people were barricaded in their offices making decisions like this,” Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) said in an interview on her decision to support impeachment. "There’s nothing more clarifying than when your life is in danger."
