The right-wing insurgent assault on the nation’s Capitol—with its calls for lynching the vice president, the killing of a police officer, the beatings, the thefts, and the vandalism, all directed at smashing democracy and incited by Donald Trump—has kicked the needle of the Democratic anger gauge deep into the red zone. The outrage has persuaded 191 House Democrats to publicly support impeachment—according to an ongoing tally by Daily Kos Elections—and sparked some unusually furious responses to Republicans trying to downplay the gravity of the attack.
For instance, here’s the representative from Pennsylvania’s 2nd congressional district giving the junior senator from Texas F-bombed advice to stop spreading manure on Twitter:
As Cruz knows, calling Nazis Nazis isn’t what’s tearing the country apart. It’s people behaving like Nazis.
And then there’s Sen. Sherrod Brown from Ohio:
And Rep. Haley Stevens from Michigan’s 11th congressional district:
Some Republicans want Democrats to chill out for the sake of the nation. That at least is the message of a small group who sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Friday night:
The lawmakers, led by Representative Ken Buck of Colorado, warned in a letter to Biden on Saturday that Trump’s impeachment would inflame his supporters anew, and damage Biden’s efforts to unify the country.
“In the spirit of healing and fidelity to our Constitution, we ask that you formally request that Speaker Nancy Pelosi discontinue her efforts to impeach President Donald J. Trump a second time,” they wrote. [...]
They added that impeachment “would undermine your priority of unifying Americans, and would be a further distraction to our nation at a time when millions of our fellow citizens are hurting because of the pandemic and the economic fallout.”
These lawmakers want everyone to forget that if they and a solid minority of their colleagues had supported the first impeachment, Trump wouldn’t have been around to make the pandemic and economic downturn as bad of disasters as they are. The incredible notion that Rep. Buck and his compatriots are putting forth is that if Democrats just lay off the guy whose incendiary efforts incited a lethal operation against the seat of American government, then the healing will go smoother is as delusional as the guy still squatting in the Oval Office for the next 11 days. They seem to believe there will be no second attack on or before Jan. 20. They pretend these thugs and their thug mouthpiece in the White House are finished with their insurrection.
Trump isn’t going to just fade away. Yes, he’ll be evicted Jan. 20, but that doesn’t mean he’ll be gone from public life unless an impeachment conviction bars him from running for elected office in 2024. Yes, getting that conviction is a huge long shot as the first impeachment obviously showed. But the tough odds are not an excuse for failing to even try.
Happily, 191 Democrats have publicly given support for moving ahead with impeachment. That’s good news. Not a distraction. Not a mistaken tactic. A necessity. The last thing Democrats should do right now is chill out.
In a portion of a “60 Minutes” interview that was released on Friday, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) called for Donald Trump to be prosecuted as she dubbed him a “deranged, unhinged, dangerous” president of the United States.
“Well, sadly, the person who’s running the executive branch is a deranged, unhinged, dangerous president of the United States, and only a number of days until we can be protected from him,” Pelosi said. “But he has done something so serious that there should be prosecution against him.”
She added that the 25th Amendment could still be invoked, and that “nothing is off the table.”
Related: Nancy Pelosi: After ‘Armed Insurrection’ House Could Impeach Trump Again
This came after Pelosi revealed that she had talked to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley to discuss President Trump and the nuclear codes,
“This morning, I spoke to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff 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,” Pelosi wrote in a letter.
“The situation of this unhinged President could not be more dangerous, and we must do everything that we can to protect the American people from his unbalanced assault on our country and our democracy,” she added.
Once the meeting was over, Pelosi told her caucuses that she had been given assurances there are safeguards in place in the event Trump wants to launch a nuclear weapon.
“Speaker Pelosi initiated a call with the Chairman. He answered her questions regarding the process of nuclear command authority,” Colonel Dave Butler said in a statement obtained by CNN.
Related: Pelosi Urges Military To Block ‘Unhinged’ President Trump From Nuclear Codes
Pelosi and her fellow Democrats are preparing a push to impeach Trump, should he not resign.
“It is the hope of members that the president will immediately resign,” Pelosi said in a statement, according to The New York Times. “But if he does not, I have instructed the Rules Committee to be prepared.”
This piece was written by James Samson on January 9, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.
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The post Pelosi Calls For Trump To Be Prosecuted – Dubs Him ‘Deranged, Unhinged, Dangerous’ appeared first on The Political Insider.
Republican Sen. Pat Toomey on Saturday said President Donald Trump has “committed impeachable offenses” by inciting a deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol, as dozens of Democratic lawmakers demanded his removal from office.
“I do think the president committed impeachable offenses,” Toomey, who is set to retire in 2022, said in an interview on Fox News’ “The Journal Editorial Report.”
Toomey (R-Pa.), who has repeatedly spoken out against Trump’s efforts to overturn the presidential election results, said he was “horrified” at Trump’s Wednesday speech at a White House rally, given shortly before a mob of rioters stormed the Capitol.
But Toomey added that he doesn’t know whether it’s “possible or practical” to move ahead with impeachment proceedings, given that Trump only has 11 days left in office before President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in on Jan. 20.
“I'm not sure it's desirable to attempt to force him out, what, a day or two or three prior to the day on which he’s going to be finished anyway,” Toomey said. “So I'm not clear that's the best path forward.”
Toomey said he didn’t know whether articles of impeachment would land on the Senate floor before Inauguration Day, but he expressed concern that House Democrats might “politicize” the issue.
“I don't know what they are going to send over and one of the things I am concerned about, frankly, is whether the House would completely politicize something,” he said.
House Democrats are quickly moving toward impeachment, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday urging Trump to resign but saying Democrats would "preserve every option" if he did not.
While Senate Republicans have been largely opposed to the push for impeachment so far, Toomey is not the first GOP lawmaker to express openness to the idea.
Sen. Ben Sasse, (R-Neb.) said Friday he would consider Trump’s removal, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) called on the president to resign, though she didn’t mention impeachment.