Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell's Faustian bargain with Donald Trump is backfiring in spectacular fashion as his Senate caucus descends into bitter internecine warfare over whether to back Trump's seditious effort to overturn the presidential election results.
That intra-party battle spilling into public view is how Republicans kicked off the 117th Congress. As House Democrats narrowly reelected Nancy Pelosi as Speaker Sunday, McConnell lost grip on the caucus he had marshaled nearly a year earlier to clear Trump of impeachment charges against the backdrop of a mountain of evidence Senate Republicans ultimately dismissed without hearing from a single witness. That blind fealty helped assure Trump that no matter what action he took—however reckless, illegal, or traitorous—he would never pay a price for it. And so when Trump lost the presidential election, he decided yet again that making a bid to steal it would be both perfectly in order and without consequence.
So McConnell and congressional Republicans once again stood by Trump for over a month, declaring repeatedly that he had every right to try to overturn the results of an election that was secure, fair, and devoid of fraud. The longer Trump's baseless effort continued, the more bogus it was shown to be through a series of endless losses in both state and federal courtrooms. But when states across the nation finally certified their results rendering Trump the loser, McConnell figured he could just flip the switch, reluctantly embrace the results, and leave Trump in the rearview mirror.
Not so fast. The monster McConnell nurtured over the last four years with the help of his fellow Republicans has turned on him. Despite his repeated pleas for Senate Republicans to leave Trump for dead when Congress certifies the election results in a joint session Wednesday, the lure of personal ambition proved too powerful for the greater good of the GOP caucus. After Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri announced with the gleam of 2024 in his eyes that he would challenge the results during certification, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas suddenly wanted a piece of the action too. Now about a dozen Senate Republicans—all hoping to ingratiate themselves with Trump's cultists to boost their own political star—have jumped on board the Trump's sedition train. As Joan McCarter notes, that pro-fascist coup faction represents a quarter of the Senate Republican caucus.
At the other end of the spectrum, several of their GOP colleagues have spoken out forcefully against the largely symbolic, politically expedient, and certainly futile effort—which will ultimately be shot down in the Democrat-controlled House. Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, who notably isn't running for reelection in 2022, blasted Hawley and Cruz by name in a statement for trying to undermine "the right of the people to elect their own leaders."
On Wednesday, Toomey said, "I intend to vigorously defend our form of government by opposing this effort to disenfranchise millions of voters in my state and others.”
Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, who has regularly marched to the beat of his own drummer in the caucus, also skewered the effort as an "egregious ploy." And Sen. Ben Sasse, who is no doubt working to burnish his own brand of Republicanism, called the challenge “a very, very, bad idea,” saying he was both "concerned about the division in America" and the health of the Republican Party. "This is bad for the country and bad for the party,” said Sasse, who just secured another six-year Senate term.
Sen. Tom of Cotton of Arkansas, a GOP firebrand also eyeing 2024, turned in a somewhat unusual condemnation of the pro-Trump challenge on constitutional grounds, saying it would "only embolden those Democrats who want to erode further our system of constitutional government.”
Even some Republicans in the House have objected to the Trumpian coup. Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, also a GOP firebrand and one-time aide to Sen. Cruz, forced his GOP colleagues Sunday to vote on whether the House delegations from the states Trump is challenging should be seated since Republicans are claiming widespread systemic fraud took place in those states.
"After all, those representatives were elected through the very same systems—with the same ballot procedures, with the same signature validations, with the same broadly applied decisions of executive and judicial branch officials—as were the electors chosen for the President of the United States under the laws of those states," Roy said of the House delegations from Arizona, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nevada. Naturally, nearly every one of his GOP voted in favor of seating the delegations, with a vote of 371-2 permitting Pelosi to swear in all the House members from the states Trump is challenging. The two GOP members who voted against it said they simply wanted to debate the matter.
While the whole episode on Wednesday will serve as yet another stain on the entire Republican party, it will at least have the benefit of forcing Senate Republicans to go on the record either backing a bald-faced betrayal of American democracy or risking the wrath of Trump. Neither one of those positions is particularly enviable for the cohort of vulnerable Senate Republicans in 2022. It forces those Senate Republicans to place very early bets on risking the alienation of more moderate suburban voters in order to woo Trump voters who may or may not actually continue to turn out for the Republican party once Trump isn't on the ticket. Sitting GOP senators such as John Thune of South Dakota are already facing the prospect of attracting primaries from Trump acolytes, which in turn could imperil the GOP’s path to prevailing in subsequent general election contests.
If Senate Republicans had hung together and refused to challenge the election results during this week’s joint session, they all could have started to build a certain amount of insulation from Trumpian politics moving forward. But as it turns out, a craven party that eagerly betrayed the country to achieve its own political ends has only served to embolden its own cohort of craven politicians who are eagerly throwing their colleagues under the bus to serve their own political ends. What comes around, goes around.
President Trump will reportedly award two of his staunchest allies – Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) and Rep. Jim Jordan (D-OH) – with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
The prestigious award is the Nation’s highest civilian honor.
The Washington Post, citing a source familiar with the plans, claimed the President “is using his final days in the White House in part to reward friends and allies with pardons and other decorations.”
They describe Nunes as “one of Trump’s most vocal supporters in his quest to undermine the Justice Department’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.”
The President is expected to award Nunes with the medal on Monday, and Jordan next week.
NEW: Trump is expected to give Rep. Devin Nunes the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the nation’s highest civilian honor — on Monday, and to give the same award to Rep. Jim Jordan next week. https://t.co/mtk1u7JL9z
Devin Nunes and Jim Jordan to Get the Presidential Medal of Freedom
Of course, describing Nunes’ efforts as “undermin(ing) the Justice Department’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election” is an incredibly biased way of saying ‘revealing corruption during the Special Counsel’s probe.’
And Nunes did that in spades.
If not for the California Republican, America might never have known about the deep-seated corruption that took place behind closed doors during the Russia probe.
Devin Nunes writes letter to Adam Schiff pointing out several serious errors Schiff made in characterizing Steele dossier, Page FISA, more. ‘It is clear you are in need of rehabilitation…’ pic.twitter.com/qoY3p7EJOo
Nunes authored a memo that was released by the House Intelligence Committee in February, 2018, which alleged abuses of power by the FBI during its investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia.
Nunes, according to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), would ultimately be “proven correct” by the Mueller report, while House Intelligence Committee Chair Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who provided a counter-memo and repeatedly leaked information to the media, would ultimately be proven a liar.
Schiff repeatedly stated through left-wing media outlets that there was “direct evidence” of collusion even as he knew that Obama officials testified time and again that there was no such evidence.
NEW: former DNI James Clapper says : “I never saw any direct empirical evidence that the Trump campaign or someone in it was plotting/ conspiring with the Russians to meddle with the election.” — in transcript of interview with House Intel during its Russia probe.
Nunes suggested Schiff was so adept at lying that he might be in need of rehabilitation.
“After publishing false conclusions of such enormity on a topic directly within this committee’s oversight responsibilities, it is clear you are in need of rehabilitation,” Nunes wrote in a letter, “and I hope this letter will serve as the first step in that vital process.”
More recently, Nunes announced plans to submit a criminal referral to the Department of Justice following the release of newly declassified messages from former FBI agent Peter Strzok.
The California Republican suggested the DOJ and FBI misled Congress regarding documents that had been requested during an investigation of potential FISA abuses.
Fox News host Sean Hannity told Nunes that he deserved the Presidential Medal of Freedom during a segment on his show in August of 2018.
Hannity said Nunes “frankly, deserves the medal of freedom for really showing, sadly, the biggest abuse of power corruption scandal.”
President Trump would later laud Nunes during an interview on Fox & Friends.
“He is really, what he has gone through and his bravery. He should get a very important medal,” Trump said. “Maybe we’ll call it medal of freedom because we actually give them, they’re high awards for civilians.”
Monday The first full week of the 117th Congress begins with Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the helm of the House for a historic fourth term. No longer taking up valuable oxygen in the chamber: Dan Lipinski, Steve King, and Doug Collins. Golly they'll be missed, said no one.
The first full week of Brexit also begins, officially severing the UK from the European Union it joined in 1973. But don’t worry, they’ll be fine. When have conservatives ever steered a country wrong?
Continued…
Tuesday After weeks of record-setting early voting, Georgians get one last chance to head to the polls and vote in two elections that will determine the balance of power in the U.S. Senate. If Democrats Jon Ossoff & Raphael Warnock win, you get an extra $1,400 of covid relief in your pocket, plus President Biden's judges and Supreme Court nominees, climate/green energy legislation, a $15 minimum wage, a new Voting Rights Act, the Equality Act, gun control, and and massive infrastructure projects. If Trump cultists David Perdue & Kelly Loeffler win, you get to own the libs. So, y'know…flip a coin.
Wednesday With all eyes fixated on the Senate chamber, the envelopes containing the certified electoral votes of all 50 states from the 2020 presidential election are opened by Mike Pence, who will either declare Joseph R. Biden the winner or make a fast getaway after chewing them up and swallowing them. Following the session, light refreshments will be served on a platter, along with Josh Hawley’s head.
Thursday House Republicans demand the impeachment of President-elect Biden. The official charge: "Something…anything!"
The pandemic suddenly disappears and things get back to normal. Moments later, my alarm clock goes off.
Friday The unemployment numbers for December are released. As usual: if they're good, the president will take all the credit. If they're bad, the president will accuse unemployed people of trying to make him look bad and declare them enemies of the state.
For yet another week, the climate will continue to make good on its promise of delivering change. The maniacal laughter that accompanies it will be troubling.
Saddle up. We have 361 days of 2021 left to tame.
And now, our feature presentation...
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Cheers and Jeers for Monday, January 4, 2021
Note: "Former President Trump." "Ex-Vice President Pence." Y'know, I'm warming up to the idea.
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By the Numbers:
16 days!!!
Days 'til inauguration day: 16
First-time unemployment claims for the final week of 2020: 787,000
Percent of Americans polled by Suffolk University/USA Today who believe that the electoral college should and should not, respectively, be abolished so that the president can be elected via popular vote: 49%, 47%
Minimum percent of dentists surveyed by the ADA who say they've seen an increase in tooth grinding and jaw pain among their patients since the pandemic began: 50%
Percent of Americans polled by Fox News who agree that 2020 was a bad year: 78%
Percent of Americans who slept through 2020, apparently: 22%
CHEERS to January! Anyone who enjoys winter sports is in heaven this month. And hot clam chowder (or your favorite soup, since it's Soup Month) on a frigid, snowy day is unbeatable!
January is named after the two-headed god Janus. And ladies: they’re single!
Nancy Pelosi maintains her grip on the Speaker's gavel, doing her damndest to help enact the agenda of Joe Biden, whose landslide electoral vote tally will officially be counted in Congress Wednesday, but not before, lord willing, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock win the Senate races tomorrow and turn control of the upper chamber to the Demon Rats!!!
Plus: minimum wage hikes kick in all over the damn place! It’s Clean Your Computer Month! Be Kind to Food Servers Month! FDR's birthday! Australia Day! National Pie Day! California Dried Plum Digestive Health Month! Marijuana may become legal (or "more legal") in nearly a dozen states! This Saturday is Static Electricity Day, aka The Day the Cat Disappears Into the Closet and Doesn't Come Out Until the Day After Static Electricity Day!
We get a "Full Wolf Moon" on the 28th! MLK Jr. Day is the 18th, two days before the D.C. swamp is drained as Joe Biden takes the oath as our 46th president!!! Here’s an interesting bit of trivia: Today is National Trivia Day! And best of all, this month exclamation points are buy-one-get-one-free!!! Whee!!! What fun!!!
JEERS to keeping track of America’s fugliest numbers. It may be a new year, but unfortunately there's nothing new about our weekly check on the pandemic as the mighty Covid-19 Wurlitzer plays on. 85 million cases worldwide at the moment—over 20 percent of them in the U.S. Here are this week's numbers for the C&J historical record, courtesy of the most depressing tote board in the world, as our death toll now roughly equals the population of America’s 55th-largest city Anaheim, California:
6 months ago: 3 million confirmed cases. 133,000 deaths.
3 months ago: 7.7 million confirmed cases. 215,000 deaths
Also last week: the Trump virus killed Mary Ann. 82.
1 month ago: 15 million confirmed cases. 288,000 deaths
This morning: 21 million confirmed cases. 360,000 deaths
Adding to the bad news is the catastrophic fact that Donald Trump is president for two more weeks of dithering, and the pandemic isn’t even close to over. Anyone know how to safely induce a coma ‘til January 20th? (Oh, right…silly me. Just turn on the Hallmark Channel.)
CHEERS to routing the redcoats. 243 years ago this week, during our War of Independence, George Washington's army drove back a British attack at the Battle of Assunpink Creek and Municipal Airport near Trenton, New Jersey. This was the follow-up to Washington's famous crossing of the Delaware, where he defeated the Hessians by using the aroma of fresh pan-fried wienerschnitzel to lure them into a giant pit:
General William Howe, the British Commander-in-Chief of North America was furious with the defeat at Trenton. He canceled Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis' scheduled leave to Britain for the winter and ordered him to Princeton immediately. […]
Only known authenticated photo from the Battle of Assunpink Creek and Strip Mall.
Washington's men held back three assaults from the British, felling hundreds of British soldiers in the process, causing Cornwallis to hold a council to decide what to do. … Washington took advantage of the break. … When Cornwallis arose in the morning, to his horror, Washington's entire army was gone.
You might say Cornwallis got his Assunpink handed to him. Ha Ha Ha!!! (Aren't you glad C&J is around for a whole 'nother year of this? Me, too.)
CHEERS to adding bleach to the dirty laundering. When the Panama Papers were released five years ago, they shined a damning spotlight on our status as one of the world's top havens for anonymous shell companies operated by the scum of the earth, from sex traffickers to your basic arms merchants of death. But given how things work in our government, I figured nothing would come of them. Happy to be wrong: included in the defense bill that Congress just passed into law over Trump's veto is the Corporate Transparency Act. Over at NBC News, Ian Gary is coming out of his socks with equal parts relief and amazement:
For decades, national security officials, law enforcement officers, human rights groups and anti-corruption advocates have seen the ability to form and misuse anonymous shell companies as arguably the biggest loophole in our anti-money-laundering framework. […]
[T]his act will take the simple yet effective step of requiring companies to report the names of their true owners at the time of formation and update the data upon any changes in ownership.
“Care for a little lead with your soap flakes, money launderers?”
Despite the bill’s simplicity, its significance is grand. After more than a decade of debate and inaction in Washington, criminals, kleptocrats, tax cheats and terrorists will no longer be able to hide behind the veil of secret companies formed in the United States.
Cool! Now Congress will move on to putting American political fundraising through the legal wringer. Ha ha…my best punch line of 2021 so far.
CHEERS to 84,904 square miles of madcap fun. Happy 124th Birthday to Utah—aka the "Beehive Hairdo State"—which entered the union on January 4th, 1896. The state animal is the Rocky Mountain Elk. The state gem is topaz. The state bird is, oddly, the California Sea Gull. And the state fossil remains, of course, Orrin Hatch.
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Ten years ago in C&J: January 4, 2011
OH GOD to the deity whisperer. I know you're on pins and needles waiting to hear what God told Pat Robertson to tell the 700 Club to tell CBS News to tell me to tell you, so I'll spare the formalities and cut to the chase:
Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson says God told him that the U.S. is bankrupt and heading into economic turmoil, but there won't be a global nuclear holocaust. Robertson said God told him that America's lenders will demand repayment—not this year, but in 2012—and the U.S. won't be able to pay, resulting in currency collapse, rampant unemployment and riots.
Economics and thermonuclear war? Nothing about the poor? Nothing about the sick? Nothing about the hungry? Nothing about the downtrodden or the less-fortunate or the oppressed? Or the wicked or the greedy or the hypocritical or the tyrannical? Pat obviously caught the Lord on an Old Testament day. [1/4/21 Update: God also told Robertson that Trump would win the election “without question.” Oops. I think He needs to leave the predictions to Daily Kos Elections and go back to work at Shake Shack.]
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And just one more…
CHEERS to cleaning up a little unfinished business. Last week in C&J we reminded ourselves that our Friday "Who Won the Week" polls offered ample evidence throughout 2020 that there was a small army of do-gooders—from clear-eyed judges putting the brakes on Republican efforts to seize power, to scientists giving us the tools necessary to put the brakes on the coronavirus—who prevented the year from being a total washout. We covered three out of the four quarters of the year, and it'd be downright gooberiffic of us to not give the fourth its due. So here are the winners of the week from October through December, including I believe the first time (Nov. 20) a hardcore Republican has hauled home the trophy:
Oct 2 New York Times Reporters Russ Buettner, Susanne Craid, and Mike McIntire, for getting hold of Trump's tax returns going back decades to confirm he's nothing but a broke, corrupt, desperate huckster
Obama campaigns in Philly for Joe. Strange—George W. Bush wasn’t asked to do any campaignerizing for Trump.
Oct 9 The federal & state law enforcement officials who stopped a right-wing terrorist cell—emboldened by President Trump—from kidnapping Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer
Oct 16 The estimated 21,000,000 Americans, including those standing in outrageous lines to shatter early-voting records in Texas, Georgia and other states, who have early-voted
Oct 23 Team Biden-Harris: rockin' the polls; strong closing ads; earns USA Today's first POTUS endorsement; crushes it at debate; Obama filets Trump in Philly speech
Oct 30 The 84 million early voters, and all the phone/text bankers, door knockers, postcard writers, and ride-givers who have turned out to make sure Trump and his evil enablers get turned out
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Nov 6 "All of the above"—related to Democratic wins in the historic 2020 elections
What a splendid little election. We simply MUST do it again four years henceforthwith.
Nov 13 Team Biden-Harris: officially our new POTUS/VPOTUS-elect with 306 EVs, 5+ million vote lead; Joe's Covid task force earns rave reviews; and Nationals ask him to throw out first 2021 pitch
Nov 20 Georgia Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger (R), for fiercely defending the state's election integrity & certifying the results for Biden despite pressure to rig them for Trump (who later called Raffensperger "an enemy of the people")
Nov 27 Team Biden-Harris: Smashes 80 million votes, leading Trump by over 6 mil; PA, MI, MN, & NV join GA election certification for Joe/Kamala; rave reviews for cabinet picks; transition access officially granted.
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Dec 4 America's medical professionals enduring burnout and red-hatted covidiots to keep on saving lives as the pandemic spirals out of control
And the miracle workers just kept on keepin’ on.
Dec 11 (Tie) PA Attorney General Josh Shapiro, for calling the Texas lawsuit attempting to nullify the 2020 election a "seditious abuse of the judicial process" … and Team Biden-Harris: "Safe Harbor Day" makes win official; 57 post-election court victories, including two at Supreme Court; Joe & Kamala voted TIME Persons of the Year
Dec 18 Medical scientists, as Pfizer and Moderna vaccines & rapid at-home test get FDA approval, and the first vaccine goes to nurse Sandra Lindsay of Long Island Jewish Medical Center
Dec 26 The doctors, nurses, hospital administrative staff, and first-responders working round-the-clock as covid casts its pall over the holidays
Stay tuned as the 2021 winner's circle fills up with heroes and achievers who go above and beyond to make this magma-filled everlasting galactic gobstopper a more pleasant place on which to hurtle through space. Make sure you slather on plenty of aloe gel—you know how easily you chap at 67,000 miles per hour.
Oh, and quick programming note: Stacey Abrams is on with Stephen Colbert tonight (11:30, CBS) to talk about the Georgia senate vote. Have a tolerable Monday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial
“Bill in Portland Maine—think about what a yutz this guy is!"
Before he leaves office, President Donald Trump will award the nation's highest civilian honor to two of his most vocal political allies who defended him throughout his impeachment, Rep. Devin Nunes of California and Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, as the White House has been inundated with requests for others, multiple sources told CNN.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said Sunday that she thinks President Trump's call pressuring the Georgia secretary of state to overturn his defeat in the state is an offense that merits impeachment. She acknowledged that she hadn't...
Nancy Pelosi was elected speaker of the House for the 117th Congress, clinching the gavel for the fourth — and potentially last — time as she prepares to steer the sharply divided chamber through the final turbulent days of the Trump era.
Pelosi won 216 votes to secure the speakership with five Democrats breaking ranks to support someone else or vote present. All Republicans voted for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
“As we are sworn in today, we accept a responsibility as daunting and demanding as any that previous generations of leadership have faced. We begin the new Congress during a time of extraordinary difficulty,” Pelosi said in a speech after accepting the gavel. “Our most urgent priority will continue to be defeating the coronavirus. And defeat it, we will.”
If this is in fact Pelosi’s last term as speaker — as she has signaled — it would cap a remarkable House career spanning more than three decades, including leading the Democratic Caucus for nearly 20 years and becoming the first, and still the only, woman to ever wield the speaker’s gavel.
Now Pelosimust lead one of the slimmest House majorities in decades — Democrats hold just 222 seats in the House to Republicans’ 211, with two vacancies — through the final days of President Donald Trump’s tenure before preparing to usher in a new era under President-elect Joe Biden.
“We have the most capable speaker in modern times,” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) said in an interview amid the multihour vote. “She is clearly the most capable and competent speaker — to bring a large group of people with diverse backgrounds and political ideology together, and function as one.”
In some ways, this was the most challenging speaker’s bid for Pelosi yet as she had to meticulously lock down every vote, with nearly zero room for error due to razor-thin party margins, rebellious Democrats and the potential for last-minute absences due to the coronavirus.
With Republicans flipping a dozen seats in November, Pelosi could only afford a handful of defectors within her caucus this time around, not the 15 Democrats who didn’t back her bid in 2019. Pelosi is the sixth speaker in history to win with fewer than 218 votes.
“We are just an extremely slim amount of votes away from risking the speakership to the Republican Party,” said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who in the past has been vocal about the need for transition to new leadership but voted for Pelosi Sunday. "It's bigger than any one of us."
The day also wasn’t without some coronavirus-related drama. In a sign of just how delicate the vote count was, and with a recognition of the surging pandemic, House officials constructed a special plexiglass box in the chamber Sunday so that members who tested negative for the coronavirus but were quarantining after exposure — two Democrats and one Republican — could still cast their vote.
The move sparked outrage and head-scratching among lawmakers and House officials, some of whom openly questioned whether the speaker’s vote mattered more than the safety of lawmakers and staff.
“To build a structure like that, in the dark of night, to only protect the votes that Speaker Pelosi needs to get reelected speaker, is shameful,” said Rep. Rodney Davis, the top Republican on the House Administration Committee.
The mechanics of the floor vote also looked far different than two years ago, when Pelosi returned to the speaker’s chair for a historic second time after losing the majority in 2010. While each member still stood one by one to cast their vote, only a few dozen lawmakers from each party were supposed to be on the floor at one time.
On the Democratic side, lawmakers mostly sat several seats away from each other, though many Republicans flouted health guidelines and sat shoulder to shoulder in the chamber.
Several members did use their moment in the spotlight to deliver personal accolades to the speaker: Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), for instance, described Pelosi as "the finest speaker in the history of the United States.” And Rep. Juan Vargas (D-Calif.) followed his vote for Pelosi with an “of course.”
But overall the tone of the day was less celebratory than in 2019, as the public health crisis and other tragedies remained top of mind for members of both parties.
Several members were spotted wearing pins honoring Rep.-elect Luke Letlow, who died Tuesday due to coronavirus complications.
And Pelosi initially missed that her name was called to voice her vote because she had been turned around in her seat talking to Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who is mourning the death of his 25-year-old son, announced earlier this week. Shortly thereafter, Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) offered Raskin his condolences before voting for McCarthy, which led some in the chamber to clap.
The vote on Sunday caps off an intense behind-the-scenes lobbying blitz over the last several weeks by Pelosi, 80, and her allies to secure full support within the caucus, including from some longtime outspoken critics of the speaker. Senior Democrats were painstakingly managing attendance up until the final hours — even reaching out to offices multiple times to confirm lawmakers would be present.
In the end, Democrats had only one absence — 84-year-old Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.), who is battling pancreatic cancer. Two Republicans weren’t present to vote — Reps.-elect David Valadao (R-Calif.) and Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.), who both tested positive for the coronavirus in recent days.
Democratic Rep. Gwen Moore of Wisconsin, who also tested positive for the coronavirus recently, was cleared from quarantine at midnight and traveled to Washington to cast her vote.
Pelosi successfully flipped several of the Democratic defectors who didn’t support her 2019 effort, including Reps. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.), Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.), Ron Kind (D-Wisc.), Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) and Jason Crow (D-Colo.).
But not every returning Democrat ended up voting for Pelosi, despite stark warnings from senior party members that they should do so.
Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) became the first defection of the day, casting his vote for Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.). He was followed by Rep. Conor Lamb (D-Pa.), who picked House Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries for speaker. Both Golden and Lamb weren’t expected to support Pelosi.
Three other Democrats who didn’t support Pelosi in 2019 — Reps. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, Abigail Spanberger of Virginia and Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey — all voted “present.”
Pelosi’s fourth term as speaker comes two years after a group of Democratic rebels tried to block her path to the gavel, only backing down after she agreed to a four-year term limit atop the House.
But in many ways since then Pelosi has only consolidated more power, positioning herself as the leading adversary to Trump during a chaotic 116th Congress that started under the longest government shutdown in history, eventually led to the impeachment of the president before being quickly consumed by the coronavirus that effectively shut down the nation for the last nine months.
Pelosi did not face a challenger this time but has been repeatedly questioned about whether this in fact would be her last term.
“What I said then is whether it passes or not, I will abide by those limits that are there,” Pelosi told reporters in November about the deal she cut with Democratic rebels in 2018. “I don’t want to undermine any leverage I may have, but I made the statement.”
With the speaker’s vote over, the House will focus on the final gasps of Trump’s term, including potential chaos on Wednesday when Republicans make one last, doomed attempt to overturn Biden’s victory results as Congress meets to certify the election results.
The effort has zero chance of success but will ensure a long day, possibly bleeding into the next, filled with drama. Republicans spent most of Sunday openly warring with each other over Trump’s attempts to subvert the election.
In a year that has brought an impeachment, a raging pandemic, far too many tragic deaths, a hopeful election, and months of increasingly aggressive sedition aimed at overturning the government of the United States, could there still be a story to top them all. Well … maybe.
The biggest story of 2020 might be one that didn’t hit the press until mid-December. Or it could be nothing. Because back in April and May, for a combined period of 30 hours, scientists at the Parkes Observatory in Australia listened in on a signal. A radio signal. One that they believed to be coming from the sun's nearest neighbor, Proxima Centauri. The nature of that signal could rock humanity’s beliefs about the universe and introduce perhaps the most groundbreaking discovery in history. Or it might have been someone warming a burrito. Despite what the wild-haired guy says on cable, it’s not aliens, because it’s never aliens. But the longer people have looked, the more of the “easy explanations” have been eliminated.
The story first leaked to The Guardian on Dec. 18. That the researchers involved, and those carrying out the analysis, sat on the data for eight months without spilling the beans makes it clear they understood exactly the reaction that comes any time someone pops up claiming to have discovered a possible sign of intelligent life in space. There will be jokes. The words “little” and “green” will be used. And skepticism tends to run right past the bounds of appropriate into dismissive.
There are very, very (and … very) good reasons to be skeptical. Not least of all because several past natural phenomena have first been thought to be potential signals of intelligence before astronomers and physicists figured out just how “clever” nonliving matter could be. In the most cited example, pulsars—regular points producing rapidly repeating patterns of “signals” at both radio and other wavelengths—turned out not to be either massive transmitters or some spectacular variety of space pharos. Instead they are the rapidly spinning neutron star cores left behind by exploded giant (but not supergiant) stars. Which kind of makes it not all that surprising that it took a bit for someone to find the explanation.
In another famous (or infamous) case, what had appeared to be a set of signals recurred so frequently that they were given a name: perytons. These signals kept returning over and over for 17 years, baffling scientists until the installation of a new instrument revealed that the mystery signals actually came from a microwave oven at the facility. And what facility would that be? Why, Parkes Observatory in Australia. That was just five years ago.
Oh yeah. You better believe they are checking everyone’s lunch schedule.
Another good reason to be skeptical of this report is that the researchers involved seem to have found exactly what they were looking for. This data was collected by the Breakthrough Listen project, a SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) project founded in part by Stephen Hawking and funded primarily by Israeli-Russian tech billionaire Yuri Milner. The signal itself was first detected by a student, Shane Smith, who tagged it as BLC1, for “Breakthrough Listen Candidate 1.” That’s right. This is the first candidate they’ve found.
Anyone who stumbles across the very thing they hoped to locate, and does so practically in their own backyard, has to be held to quite a high standard of proof.
However, as Scientific American reports, after months of wading through the data, searching for possible sources of interference, and reviewing the contents of the signal, the scientists involved remain hopeful. The signal appears to come from a point source at distance rather than something close at hand. It also appears to be quite narrow in bandwidth, which would be somewhat unusual for a natural source. Finally, not only does the signal appear to originate from the area of Proxima Centauri, the researchers believe it shows signs of a regular shift that might be expected if the source was actually a planet orbiting that star.
As it happens, Proxima Centauri is quite a complex little system. It’s a red dwarf star, the most common kind of star in the universe, quite a bit smaller and cooler than our sun. In fact, it’s so small and cool that, despite being the nearest star to our own, it can’t be seen by the naked eye. (It also can’t be seen at all from the Northern Hemisphere, so plan a trip and bring at least a good pair of binoculars.)
This small star is believed to orbit around the binary star Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B. (Proxima is also known as Alpha Centauri C.) Those stars are larger yellow stars, more similar in size and temperature to the sun. Exactly what that orbit looks like, or how long it’s been going on, is the cause for a lot of computation and a lot of frustration. (Read Three Body Problem from Chinese science fiction writer Liu Cixin if you want to understand more about why this is so difficult to suss out.)
Little red Proxima is known to have at least two planets which, for perfectly sound planet-hunter reasons, are known as Proxima B and Proxima C. Proxima C is about 7 times the mass of Earth, making it roughly the same size as Neptune. However, it’s not clear if the planet is actually a gas giant or just the kind of oversized rocky world known as a “super Earth.”
Proxima B is where it really gets interesting. The planet is located very close to the star, much closer than Mercury is to the Sun. So close, in fact, that Proxima B’s “year” is just 11 days long. However, because Proxima Centauri is so much smaller and cooler than our sun, this close orbit places Proxima B squarely in the “habitable zone.” Which means nothing except that the level of radiation received by the planet is such that it could potentially have liquid water on the surface. Water is something that scientists believe is critical to everything we understand as life. Proxima B is also not a lot larger than Earth—about 1.17 times the mass of Earth. As far as Earth-like exoplanets go, Proxima B is a pretty decent candidate.
And, in interstellar terms, it’s right next door. Like right next door. This is absolutely the closest star out there. Why, it’s so close that if the Voyager 1 probe happened to be aimed in the right direction (it’s not), it would pass by Proxima in just … 71,000 years.
Space: It’s big.
There are reasons to be dismissive of the idea that there could be life on Proxima B. For one thing, red dwarf stars may be smaller than yellow stars like our sun, but they also tend to be rather grumpy. Red dwarf stars have frequent storms and eruptions that would hit a close-orbiting planet like Proxima B with so many energetic particles it might quickly strip away any atmosphere. Not all scientists think this is the case, but if there’s going to be life around red dwarf stars, it would take some mechanisms we don’t yet understand. In Proxima’s case, there is also the complication of that maybe-orbit around the Alpha Centauri binary star, which could cause serious instability over time both for the red star and its planets.
Breakthrough Listen has been going to sites around the globe, buying up time on radio telescopes, and listening in for signals like what seems to have been detected at Proxima. It is definitely the hottest show in the whole of the many decades of SETI. So, as might be expected, SETI.org is … completely skeptical. Their latest news release contains what amounts to a sneering dismissal of the possible signal from Proxima Centauri.
Besides emphasizing that this is only a candidate, the biggest thrust of the article is just how unlikely it would be to encounter intelligent life at the next system over. Not just intelligent life, but life at a technological stage so similar to our own that it’s using radio signals that we can detect and possibly identify. All of which is a pretty good point. In fact, the director of Breakthrough Listen has announced that the signals are “likely interference” that will soon be explained.
Still, as SETI researcher Franck Marchis says in his conclusion …
2020 has been a crazy year on so many levels, even in the field of SETI. After the mysterious appearance of monoliths and the announcement of the galactic federation, we now have BLC1, a curious and mysterious signal that might—or might not—have come from Proxima Centauri. It’s probably not alien and we will confirm this soon. Of course, as a SETI Institute scientist, nothing would please me more than to be proven wrong.
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