Just before 7 p.m. on Monday, the House of Representatives' impeachment managers will march an article accusing former President Trump of inciting an insurrection across to the Senate side of the Capitol, officially triggering a trial of the former president that could result in him being barred from holding office in the future.
Wallace asked Romney, “Senator, do you support holding this impeachment trial, and what do you think the rules should be on the length of the trial and whether or not to call witnesses?”
Romney replied, “Well, we’re certainly going to have a trial. I wish that weren’t necessary, with the president’s conduct with regard to the call to the secretary of state in Georgia as well as the incitation towards the insurrection that led to the attack on the Capital calls for a trial.”
Then the anti-Trump Republican suggested that the impeachment could bring more unity for the U.S.
“If we are going to have unity in our country, I think it’s important to recognize the need for accountability, for truth, and justice,” Romney said.
Chris Wallace: "Senator, it sure sounds like you're going to vote to convict."
Sen. Mitt Romney: "There's no question that the article of impeachment sent over by the House suggests impeachable conduct, but we have not yet heard either from the prosecution or from the defense." pic.twitter.com/Kq0NuAgy2s
Romney: ‘Pretty Clear’ Trump Spent A Year Trying To ‘Corrupt The Election’
He added, “So I think there will be a trial, and I hope it goes as quickly as possible, but that’s up to the council on both sides.”
Romney said it has been “pretty clear” over the last year and Trump had been trying to corrupt the election.
“I think it’s pretty clear that over the last year or so there has been an effort to corrupt the election of the United States and it was not by President Biden, it was by President Trump and that corruption we saw with regards to the conduct in Ukraine as well as the call to Secretary of state Raffensperger as well as the in citation to insurrection.”
Romney has a long history of anti-Trump sentiment.
Romney was the only Republican Senator to vote to convict President Trump during the first impeachment trial.
In 2016, Romney famously gave a “Never Trump” speech when it became clear that Trump was likely to win the Republican nomination for President.
Chris Wallace: [D]o you believe that Donald Trump is unfit to serve as president and should be removed from office?
The Utah senator finished his interview with Wallace by saying Trump provoked an attack on American democracy.
“I mean, this is obviously very serious and an attack on the very foundation of our democracy, and it is something that has to be considered and resolved,” Romney added.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is finding out that it’s tough to strike the right balance between supporting leaders of your party who incited a violent insurrection and criticizing the violent insurrection. It turns out that there’s no “right balance” when it comes to supporting violent insurrection, go figure.
McCarthy has ping-ponged from admitting that Donald Trump “bears responsibility” for his supporters’ attack on the U.S. Capitol that left five dead, including a police officer beaten to death by the mob, to stumbling backward to insist that “I don’t believe [Trump] provoked it, if you listen to what he said at the rally,” because oh noes, Trump supporters get mad if you say he ever bears responsibility for anything at all. Next McCarthy careened over to the insistence that “I also think everybody across this country has some responsibility.”
Everybody! Across the whole country! People who battered down windows at the Capitol and chanted “Hang Mike Pence” and people who watched in horror on their televisions as that happened. Politicians who, like Trump, told the mob to march on the Capitol while saying “you’ll never take our country back with weakness,” and politicians who went from trying to fulfill their constitutional duty to count the electoral votes to hiding in secure rooms while the screaming mob tried to find them. And, of course, President Biden bears responsibility for trying to unite the country by only pursuing policies Republicans like, and if he tries to do any Democrat-type things, then it’s all his fault, too.
McCarthy also went on to whine about Rep. Liz Cheney's impeachment vote, saying “Look, I support her, but I also have concerns.” He’s concerned she didn’t run her stand by him first, but again, Kevin McCarthy is not trying to be the guy taking a firm position on anything, so “I do think she has a lot of questions she has to answer to the conference.” He’s just concerned, himself, and disappointed she didn’t communicate better. But hoo boy, that conference is going to have some questions.
Next, McCarthy came out with an ass-covering tweet about how he doesn’t support the domestic terrorists, but “it is incumbent upon every person in America to help lower the temperature of our political discourse.” Again, everybody. No special responsibility to the people who are carrying out the violence. His staff even emailed other Republican communications staffers asking them to please please please retweet this masterful piece of statesmanship.
Or, more privately, ”We're eating sh*t for breakfast, lunch and dinner right now,” a McCarthy aide told Axios. Yeah, well, your boss is spewing sh*t every time he opens his mouth, then backtracking to eat his own words, so that makes sense.
There just isn’t a comfortable “both sides” on a violent mob attacking the seat of government to prevent lawmakers from formalizing an election result the mob doesn’t like. Until McCarthy realizes that and commits to a side—for violent insurrection or against it—he’s going to keep taking incoming from all directions. Forget the single violin, break out the entire tiny orchestra for this poor guy.
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
●Impeachment: Following the House's recent move to impeach Donald Trump for incitement of insurrection, the 10 Republicans who voted in favor of holding Trump accountable for his actions are now almost all facing intense intra-party anger—including, in many cases, talk of potential primary challenges. Here's the latest on each:
CA-21: Republican leaders in Fresno County are enraged with Rep. David Valadao, with the local party's chair saying his organization wouldn't support the congressman "if the election were held today." But Valadao is at least somewhat insulated thanks to California's top-two primary system, which makes it exceedingly hard for partisans to oust incumbents in a primary since they'd have to finish third to miss out on the November general election—something that's never happened in a congressional race.
IL-16: Gene Koprowski, a former official with a conservative think tank called the Heartland Institute, recently told the New York Times that he was raising money for a potential campaign against Rep. Adam Kinzinger, but Koprowski added that he wouldn't enter the race until the Democratic-led state legislature finishes the redistricting process. Koprowski earned some very unfavorable notice in 2018 when HuffPost reported that he'd been charged with stalking a female colleague, and that senior Heartland officials sought to protect him.
MI-03: Army National Guard veteran Tom Norton, who unsuccessfully sought the GOP nod in Michigan's 3rd District last year when it was an open seat last year, is running against Rep. Peter Meijer once again. Norton raised very little and finished a distant third with just 16% of the vote. His Twitter feed is filled with remarks like, "If there is no such thing as gender, how can @KamalaHarris be a historic female?" and "If your gay go be gay that is your right. But when you remove a body part your not a woman your still a man. We are normalizing crazy."
NY-24: Local Republican and Conservative Party officials are quite pissed at Rep. John Katko, though there's been no real talk of a primary challenge yet. However, Katko was already on thin ice with the Conservative Party, whom he infuriated last cycle when he cosponsored a bill that condemned Trump's ban on transgender Americans serving in the armed forces. Some (but not all) of the damage was later repaired, but loss of Conservative support could prove very dangerous: In 2018, Katko defeated Democrat Dana Balter by 13,694 votes while earning 16,972 votes on the Conservative Party line. New York's 24th is one of just two districts Joe Biden won on this list (along with California's 21st), so defections on Katko's right flank could cause him serious trouble in the general election as much as in a primary.
OH-16: Former state Rep. Christina Hagan, who sought Ohio's 16th District once before, "is not ruling out" a challenge to Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, says Politico. Hagan lost to Gonzalez 53-41 in the GOP primary in 2018, when the 16th had become open, then ran unsuccessfully in the neighboring 13th District last year, falling 52-45 to Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan.
SC-07: We've previously written about two Republicans who are considering challenges to Rep. Tom Rice, but now a third is threatening to enter the fray. Former NYPD officer John Cummings, who raised $11 million in a futile bid against AOC last year, is reportedly thinking about taking his grift show down South for a potential primary bid. Rice may be the most vulnerable Republican on this list because South Carolina, alone among these nine states, requires runoffs if no candidate secures a majority, meaning Rice can't pin his hopes of survival on winning renomination with a mere plurality.
WA-03, WA-04: Republican leaders in Washington's 3rd and 4th Districts are hopping mad and say they expect both Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler and Dan Newhouse to face primary challenges, though no names have emerged yet. However, like Valadao, both enjoy a measure of protection thanks to Washington's top-two primary system, which works just like California's.
WY-AL: Politico reports that Air Force veteran Bryan Miller is "expected" to run against Rep. Liz Cheney, though in a brief quote, he doesn't say anything about his plans. If he does enter, however, that might paradoxically be good news for Cheney, since she already landed one credible opponent, state Sen. Anthony Bouchard, just the other day. Contra Tom Rice in South Carolina, Cheney could escape with a plurality because Wyoming has no runoffs.
Senate
●GA-Sen: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution suggests that former Republican state Rep. Earl Ehrhart might be considering a bid against Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, who is up for re-election for a full six-year term in 2022. Ehrhart served in the state House for 30 years before retiring in 2018, making him the longest-serving Republican in the lower chamber, though he's still only 61 years old.
●WI-Sen: Democratic Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who previously had not ruled out a bid against Republican Sen. Ron Johnson next year, now confirms he's "given consideration" to a possible campaign, though he hasn't offered a timetable for a decision. Barnes, a former state representative, was elected on a ticket with Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in 2018 and would be Wisconsin's first Black senator.
Governors
●RI-Gov: With Rhode Island Lt. Gov. Daniel McKee set to replace Gov. Gina Raimondo if she's confirmed as Joe Biden's new Commerce secretary, we were curious to know how well people who've ascended to the governorship in this manner fare when they choose to seek election in their own right. Fortunately, the University of Minnesota's Eric Ostermeier has answered this question in depth.
Since 1900, 174 second-in-command office-holders (including not only lieutenant governors but also—depending on the state—secretaries of state, state senate presidents, and state house speakers) have become governor in their own right, though only 128 were eligible to run in the following election (some, for instance, were only elevated after relevant primaries had passed). Of these, 109 chose to do so, but only a little more than half—59, or 54%—succeeded: 21 failed to win their party's nomination, while 29 lost general elections.
That's considerably lower than the overall re-election rate for governors, which from 1963 through 2013 was 75%, according to an earlier Ostermeier analysis. However, that figure includes these "elevated governors," so the actual re-election rate for governors first elected in their own right is even higher. That'll be something for McKee to think about both in terms of the Democratic primary and, should he prevail, next year's general election as well.
●VA-Gov: Bob McDonnell, who was the last Republican to serve as governor of Virginia, has endorsed Del. Kirk Cox, who is hoping to break the GOP's long losing streak this fall. When McDonnell won office in 2009, that was in fact the last time any Republican won a statewide race in Virginia.
Mayors
●Cincinnati, OH Mayor: Hamilton County Commissioner Denise Driehaus, a Democrat, said on Friday that she would not run for mayor this year.
Less than a week into his new administration, President Joe Biden's promise of restoring bipartisanship is going to face even more hurdles as Republicans are signaling they have little interest in taking up his first legislative priority: another massive Covid-19 relief bill.
Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., came out firmly against the upcoming Senate impeachment trial for former President Trump, stating that not only does it raise constitutional issues, but it impedes President Biden's administration.
One thing I'm dedicated to in the Biden-Harris era is referring to the previous administration as little as possible. Difficult, for sure, especially with the closet full of shoes left to drop, charges to be filed, and trials to be followed. Still, at C&J we promise to keep our mentions of the "T" crime syndicate as few and far between as possible. We're as sick of them as you, and they don’t deserve the oxygen. But just to put a cap on the last four years, here's the fate of the major players for the historic time capsule, courtesy of Conan…
Note: Can't get the cap off the maple syrup bottle? Try this: set your house on fire and then twist gently. The heat will warm the sticky syrup caught between the aluminum cap and the glass grooves and allow it to be gently loosened with your fingertips. Or try pliers or other wrench-like implement. —Hugs, Heloise
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By the Numbers:
9 days!!!
Days 'til World, National, State and Local Carrot Cake Day: 9
Amount by which Joe Biden and Kamala Harris's swearing-in beat their immediate predecessors' viewership among the six major TV networks last Wednesday, according to the Nielsen ratings: 1.5 million people
Drop in Fox News's ratings during inauguration day 2021 versus 2017: 77%
Estimated amount spent on the 2020 campaigns for the House, Senate, and White House:$14 billion
Percent of U.S. workers over 55 who plan to delay their retirement because of the pandemic, according to Harper's Index:13%
Percent chance that the Biden administration renewed the White House subscriptions to The New York Times and The Washington Post after the previous administration dropped them because the papers hurt their fee-fees: 100%
Age at which baseball legend Hank Aaron and broadcasting legend Larry King died: 86, 87
CHEERS to moving day. Proceeding through halls that earlier this month were filled with spear-wielding insurrectionists (long story) and their moms (longer story), the House of Representatives will march a single article of impeachment—"Stupid Traitor Butthead Incited An Insurrection"—against Joe Biden's predecessor into the esteemed upper chamber atop a Roman shield carried by a half dozen off-duty WWE titans, whereupon the Senate will begin preparations for the start of his second trial in four years. The goal this time is to officially deem him ineligible to seek public office in the future, having allegedly coordinated and paid for a coup at the Capitol after his attempt to subvert the Justice Department fell through. And in a sweet twist, AP reports that his own cult could do him in:
The words of Donald Trump supporters who are accused of participating in the deadly U.S. Capitol riot may end up being used against him in his Senate impeachment trial as he faces the charge of inciting a violent insurrection.
Roberts’ gavel drops (again) in 14 days.
At least five supporters facing federal charges have suggested they were taking orders from the then-president when they marched on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6 to challenge the certification of Joe Biden’s election win. But now those comments, captured in interviews with reporters and federal agents, are likely to take center stage as Democrats lay out their case.
The trial starts February 9th. The House's case will be handled by nine representatives, including Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Joaquin Castro (D-TX). Republicans, meanwhile, are assembling their team. So far it includes Grumpy, Dopey, Shouty, Wheezy, Creepy, Spiteful and Rudy Giuliani in a Perry Mason mask.
JEERS to the ongoing pandemic. Let's get one thing straight. When it comes to dealing with the covid crisis, the Biden administration isn’t "starting from scratch" like the media have reported. No—it's starting from "jack shit." Worldwide there are now over 99 millioncases—a quarter of them in the U.S., which last week marked the one-year anniversary of the first reported case here. Here are this week's numbers for the C&J historical record—our first check since Joe Biden grabbed the crisis by the reins and let science and common sense take over—courtesy of the most depressing tote board in the world, as our death toll now exceeds the population of America’s 46th-largest city Minneapolis, Minnesota:
6 months ago: 4.3 million confirmed cases. 150,000 deaths.
3 months ago: 9 million confirmed cases. 230,000 deaths
The president signs covid executive orders while following his mask mandate.
1 month ago: 20 million confirmed cases. 340,000 deaths
This morning: 26 million confirmed cases. 427,000 deaths
As President Biden has pointed out, things are going to get worse for awhile before they get better, given how much sciencing we have in front of us. Last week he got the ball rolling by signing a slew of executive actions that will contain and destroy covid, including faster testing and vaccinations, improving coordination with state and local officials, and ensuring that minorities aren’t left behind. "Well, so much for his unity pledge," said a visibly angry spokesvirus.
CHEERS to great moments in traction. 122 years ago this week, Humphrey O’Sullivan patented the rubber heel. That’s nice, but we’re partial to the steel-tipped toe (and the exposed Republican shin).
CHEERS to powering up, nice and clean-like. Gotta give a shout-out to the 26 states that defied the fossil-fuel fantasies of the previous administration by, among other things, adhering to the standards of the Paris Climate Accord after Whatsizface unceremoniously withdrew from it. Fortunately, the green energy revolution is pretty much a juggernaut by now, and the Biden administration intends to literally put a lot more wind in its sails, using lessons learned at the state level. The Center for American Progress has a nice overview, including Joe's climate team:
One of the most exciting things about this slate of “climate Cabinet” nominees is the experience and success instate-level climate leadership it will bring to the federal government. After all, for the past half-decade and longer, states have been laying a roadmap for bold, nationwide climate action. Many of these nominees have served in or at the top of state government, including in Michigan, North Carolina, and New York. Others hail from states that have recently made great strides in clean energy such as New Mexico. All of them can now put lessons from their states’ leadership to work toward advancing federal policy and supporting ambitious climate action at all levels of government.
And John Kerry globetrotting as America’s special climate envoy.
The climate plan includes commitments to new sectoral standards and strategies for agriculture, buildings, electricity, industry and transportation—including 100 percent carbon-free electricity by the year 2035—to lead in reaching net-zero greenhouse gas pollution throughout the U.S. economy by midcentury; calls for $2 trillion in investments in clean energy and sustainable infrastructure and for at least 40 percent of those investments to benefit disadvantaged communities; and draws inspiration from a climate movement that has increasingly coalesced around a “standards, investments and justice” framework to confront the climate challenge in this new decade.
The climate plan also has exciting implications for the health care sector. You may not have noticed, but the moment Joe Biden was sworn in, the rate of cancer from windmill noise instantly dropped to zero. I’m filling out the Nobel Prize nomination form now.
CHEERS to nimble fingers vs. fumble fingers. If you missed the NFL action yesterday, here's what happened: Kansas City beat Buffalo 38-24, and the Buccaneers sent the Packers packing 31 to 26. (Don’t feel bad for the losers—they’re going home with a fabulous runner-up prize package that includes a Samsonite luggage set and $100 gift certificate from the Spiegel Catalog.) So it'll be Mahomes vs. Brady (Him again???) on February 7 during Super Bowl XVVVVVVVVIIIII. And in other sports news, the winners over the weekend in the National Hockey League were, as usual, the players' dentists.
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Ten years ago in C&J: January 25, 2011
JEERS to the "Good night and good luck" heard 'round the world. Walter Cronkite...M*A*S*H...Bill Moyers...Lost...Oprah...Larry King...Cheers...hell, even Regis Philbin. All of these iconic TV titans gave us plenty of time to adjust to their looming absence from the small screen. No such luck Friday night when, 50 minutes into his show, Keith Olbermann went into a commercial break by announcing, so matter-of-factly as to make viewers momentarily think he was kidding: "This will be the last edition of Countdown." So what's next for Olbermann? Who knows? Speculation has him co-founding a cable sports network, creating a Huffington Post-like web site, opening a shoe store, running for office, or taking his massive pile of settlement cash and living out his days at a villa in the south of France. If the latter, I call dibs on cabana boy duties. (I have my own daiquiri blender—It's a Northrup Grumman 5000).
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And just one more…
CHEERS to the wisdom of jbou. The Kossack—one of several who departed during that awful purge of beloved humans in 2016—is gone but not forgotten. C&J promised to revisit his sharp George-Carlin-meets-Stephen-Wright zingers from time to time because, well, they will never cease to crack me up. And whaddya know, today is one of those days. Here's what was on his mind back in January of 2012 and 2013…
» As a kid, I'd get attention by saying inappropriate things and making fart noises. As an adult, I'm taller.
» The sad thing about Baby New Year is knowing he dies on his first birthday.
» Maybe we should be focusing less on Goldilocks and more on why Mama and Papa bear don't sleep in the same bed anymore.
» Love is like the Force: it surrounds us, binds us, and people can use it to cut off your arms and legs and toss you into lava.
jbou
» In order to confuse the bigots, everyone will now please exchange stereotypes with the ethnicity to your immediate left. Thank you.
» This "judge people by the content of their character" thing is not working to my advantage.
» Autocorrect makes me feel like I'm friends with a nosy, incompetent know-it-all.
» Time heals all wounds. Unless you suffered a horrible disfigurement working in a clock factory. Then it's just a grim reminder.
» I ordered a plunger and a snare drum on Amazon so next time you order one and it recommends the other, that's me.
» It seems the group of people who are easily offended and the group of people who are easily confused tend to be the same group.
How nice to know that our dearly-departed members of the Daily Kos community—from Exmearden to Triciawyse to Patriot Daily New Clearinghouse to jbou, and all the rest—can finally, as of last Wednesday, stop spinning in their graves and rest in peace again. Just in case we end up with another Republican president after I’m gone, the #1 item on my list of last wishes is: embalm me with Dramamine.
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
“I’ve been wanting to come in Cheers and Jeers for months and months. Let’s call it what it is. I got blocked because they didn’t like the way you splash.”
A huge coalition of activist groups had been working together since the spring to make sure that Joe Biden won and that the “election stayed won” amid Donald Trump’s subterfuge.
They convened to craft a plan for answering the onslaught on American democracy, and they soon reached a few key decisions. They would stay off the streets for the moment and hold back from mass demonstrations that could be exposed to an armed mob goaded on by President Donald J. Trump.
They would use careful language. In a presentation, Anat Shenker-Osorio, a liberal messaging guru, urged against calling the attack a “coup,” warning that the word could make Mr. Trump sound far stronger than he was — or even imply that a pro-Trump militia had seized power.
In the past day multiple state Republican parties have taken to Twitter to embrace QAnon, in case you were wondering how their party rebuilding efforts are going.
What is interesting about this moment is that we used to get mad at media (NY Times,especially, but all of it across the board) for refusing to call out Donald Trump, normalizing him, refusing to use the word “lies” etc.
But now, media and reporting are clear. It’s the conservative part of the public that won’t accept the truth. They’ll have to sooner or later (see COVID), but a lot of harm will occur along the way.
Conservatives love to complain about the media. But there's an inside baseball media that reveals how destructive the conservative media criticism environment can be to the conservative movement. Enter, Fox News: https://t.co/wdSBz9F2Ng
Former president, private citizen and, perhaps, criminal defendant:
Donald Trump’s new reality
The question came out of the blue and has haunted me ever since. It was Jan. 17, 2017, three days before Donald Trump’s swearing-in, and my wife and I sat with him in the near-empty main cabin aboard the Trump Organization’s Boeing 757 en route to Washington for a pre-inaugural gala.
So, asked the president-elect: Should he retain or fire Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the powerful Southern District of New York? I gave what I thought was an obvious, anodyne answer: All other things being equal, it’s better to have your own people in place. Within two months, Bharara was gone.
To the charge of naivete that night, I plead guilty: I didn’t consider then that Trump might have had his personal legal interests in mind. But it is impossible to escape the self-interested intent behind his question. From the earliest days of his administration, it became painfully apparent that in all matters — including affairs of state — Trump’s personal well-being took top priority. Four years and two impeachments later, he has managed to avoid the full consequences of his conduct.
But now that run of legal good fortune may end. Trump departed the White House a possible — many would say probable, provable — criminal, one who has left a sordid trail of potential and actual misconduct that remains to be fully investigated.
Since Vietnam, America's militarism has radicalized too many returning troops toward right-wing extremism, to "bring the war home" 20% arrested for the Jan. insurrection are veterans Biden can do something. He can end the 'forever war.' My new column https://t.co/9YAQoqZ0lX
— Will Bunch Sign Up For My Newsletter (@Will_Bunch) January 24, 2021
Let's get real. Joe Biden, Democrats and America need results much more than unity.
It's time to give Biden's 81 million voters a chance to be heard and Biden a chance to carry out the plans he ran on, even if he has to play hardball.
When Biden spoke of unity, however, he was clear. He explicitly did not mean he expected we would all agree on every initiative. Rather, his intent as laid out in the speech, was to remind Americans that we are all in this together. He has said his goal is to de-toxify American politics, to end the zero sum, us vs. them mentality that dominated during the Trump years. He wants to make sure people understood that under his administration, no state or city or individual will be penalized for their legitimate political beliefs.
The Texas Supreme Court has denied Alex Jones all forms of relief: Sandy Hook families and others can now sue Jones and InfoWars into the ground. https://t.co/aNTYRYIakb
The imagery of the Capitol siege will have enduring resonance.
Large segments of the mob that stormed the Capitol were unaffiliated — individuals and small groups, family members, neighbors. These could well be the new foot soldiers of the far right. Some, and perhaps many, of these new recruits will have military experience or law enforcement training. What’s more, the infusion of younger members into the ranks of the far right is likely to breathe new life into the movement, ensuring its longevity.
I will look at this picture next time I’m tempted to complain about anything. https://t.co/I2QL2U1glb
Longtime GOP insider Mike Lofgren on his former party: "Going easy on these people will not work"
Lofgren spent 28 years on Capitol Hill. Now he says Republican zealots should be crushed, banished and ostracized
I recently discussed the insurrection at the Capitol, how best to combat right-wing extremism and the future of the Republican Party with Lofgren in a phone conversation, lightly edited here for length and clarity.
We'll start with the obvious. What was your gut reaction as you watched the act of domestic terrorism — the siege of the Capitol — live on television? Now that you've had time to process it, what is your interpretation of the event both in terms of what happened and how the United States should proceed?
I worked for three decades in Congress. Regardless of how peeved I might have been over some policy or another, I was proud of my public service. To see the place trashed like that, and I mean really desecrated — there were people shitting on the floor, and smearing it on the walls. The insane violence of a mob beating a cop with a fire extinguisher and shoving him down the marble stairs was horrifying. At the same time, once the mob was dispersed, they went throughout the D.C. metro area randomly beating up people whom they could victimize. Later that afternoon, my daughter, who does not live in D.C. but in Arlington, across the river, was out walking her dog, and saw these thugs spewing out of the Metro station like toxic waste. She had to do a 180. Arlington was placed under curfew that night. All these occurrences, including having to worry about my own family's safety, left some pretty vivid impressions, to say the least.
If Senate R’s aren’t willing to convict Trump, that means that inciting a deadly attack on the Capitol, installing stooges at DOJ to overturn an election, and strong-arming a SOS to find 11,780 votes, is not only 👍, but that the guy who did it should continue to run their party.
After the Capitol assault—and after losing his perch as Majority Leader—the senator finally denounced the outgoing President. Was it a moral reckoning or yet another act of political self-interest?
Several Republican advisers argued to me that McConnell had no reasonable choice. If he had confronted Trump before the Georgia runoff, they said, Trump would have launched a civil war within the Party, possibly even commanding his supporters not to vote. “It could have been worse,” the former Trump official said. “Trump could have attacked” the two Republican Senate candidates, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, or the National Republican Senate Campaign Committee. As one of the advisers put it, “McConnell was trying to keep the wheels on the train for a few more hours.”
The price of Trump’s coöperation, however, grew ever higher. According to a well-informed Republican insider, Trump made unconscionable demands behind the scenes. He threatened to withhold his support for Loeffler and Perdue, and refused to campaign for them unless they joined his attacks on Georgia’s election officials and repeated his false claims of widespread election fraud. Days before the runoff, the insider said, the President forced Perdue to leave the campaign trail for a secret meeting at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club in Palm Beach, Florida. There, Trump coerced Perdue not just into taking his side on election fraud but also into supporting an increase in the size of pandemic-relief checks to two thousand dollars—a figure that McConnell and Senate Republicans opposed. If Perdue refused, Trump made clear, he might withdraw his support. At the time, a spokesman for Perdue’s campaign denied that Trump had pressured Perdue. But, soon after the Mar-a-Lago meeting, both Perdue and Loeffler began echoing Trump’s call for larger relief checks, placing themselves and McConnell in an embarrassing political bind. Trump, meanwhile, went on Twitter and attacked McConnell’s opposition to the bigger relief checks, calling it a “death wish.” The President’s behavior toward the candidates led the insider to a simple conclusion: “Trump is a thug.”
This is going to be an unpopular opinion ... but one of the important takeaways from this piece is that Trump’s efforts to steal the election failed miserably because the overwhelming number of GOP officials put fealty to democracy ahead of fealty to Trump https://t.co/6SO2V6tU6O
Here’s the problem for Republicans: office holders like Brad Raffensperger and Mitch McConnell would rather the white supremacy stay genteel and quiet to keep the majority.
QAnon and the Republican base, increasingly the same as in Marjorie Taylor Green and Lauren Boebert, want it said out loud. They’d rather be loud and in the minority than suffer the embarrassment of compromise (let alone admission of guilt, error, or defeat).
It’s going to be a rough few years. Republicans will simply refuse to acknowledge losses so long as there is no price to be paid for it.
Biden says he wants unity, but he refuses to let Trump still be president
‘Bamboozled.’ Hawley mentors stunned by conduct, but early warning signs were there
Since the Capitol rampage,Hawley’s mentors have disavowed him. Donors have demanded refunds. Colleagues have called for his resignation or expulsion. And those who helped guide his career are asking themselves if they missed something essential about their former mentee.
“I am more than a little bamboozled by it, certainly distressed by it,” said David Kennedy, the Stanford professor emeritus of history who served as Hawley’s academic adviser and wrote the foreword to his 2008 book on Teddy Roosevelt.
But the Lexington columns suggest that Hawley’s ideology took root long before he entered public life, and that his passage from Roosevelt scholar to Trump’s ideological heir was not entirely unforeseen.
