Month: January 2021

Support for convicting Trump grows among Republicans

Posted on by Kerry Eleveld

Support for a Senate conviction of Donald Trump among Republican voters has grown since last week, though it's still not particularly high. But as more information emerges about the Trump-inspired violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, GOP support for convicting Trump has ticked up a half dozen points from 14% on Jan. 8-11 to 20% on Jan. 15-17, according to new Politico/Morning Consult polling released Tuesday.

It's still wildly low by any reasonable measure, but given that Trump commanded roughly 90% support among the GOP base throughout his term, it's a notable break from someone who conservative voters never held to account for anything he did. About 86% of Democrats also "strongly" or "somewhat" support Senate conviction, as do some 50% of independents.

Last week, FiveThirtyEight.com also found that overall support for Trump's impeachment in an average of polls was up a handful of points from where it stood during the Ukraine scandal, 52% now versus about 47%-48% then.

No matter what, Trump is leaving office with a wildly diminished profile because, well, he sucks and he actually launched a deadly attack on U.S. soil, the nation's duly elected Congress, and the government he was supposedly charged with leading. In the latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll, 60% of respondents said he would be remembered as a below-average president, with 47% saying he qualified as one of the worst presidents in U.S. history.

In Gallup’s final polling, Trump's job approval stood at 34%—his lowest to date in the poll. He averaged 41% approval throughout his tenure, hitting an all-time high of 49% early last year around the time of his Senate acquittal and the early days of the pandemic. "Trump is the only president not to register a 50% job approval rating at any point in his presidency since Gallup began measuring presidential job approval in 1938," writes the outlet. 

So much winning. 

Schumer, McConnell working out how to handle 50-50 Senate, but Democrats have most control

Posted on by Joan McCarter

The first duty for Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on Wednesday once she’s officially Vice President Harris will be to swear in Alex Padilla, the successor to her Senate seat in California. She could also be swearing in Georgia's new senators, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, though that's a bit uncertain, depending on when Georgia can finish up certification of the election. (The deadline is Friday, but they're moving faster.) With that, Sen. Chuck Schumer becomes majority leader and Mitch McConnell has more time to cook up plots to stymie the Biden administration and Schumer. Officially, the two have determined a power-sharing agreement based on the precedent set in the 2001 Senate, which also split 50-50.

That agreement is expected to give Schumer and committee chairs the power of setting the schedule. The committee assignments will be split evenly, but Democrats will chair and have the power to set the agenda on committees. Tied committee votes on legislation or on nominations will probably default to the Democrats and advance to the floor, where Harris would be able to break ties. This agreement is roughly what staff has worked out thus far; the leaders are set to meet Tuesday to ink the final organizing resolution that will determine all that. They also need to work out the logistics of the coming impeachment trial of Donald Trump and coordinating that with the urgent votes on President-elect Joe Biden's Cabinet nominees. One old Senate hand, Jim Manley, has heard—presumably from contacts in the leadership team—that the staff negotiations "did not go as smoothly as published reports suggested." So it could be a rather interesting meeting. On the whole, though, procedural experts are saying, "Don't panic."

Adam Jentleson, former deputy chief of staff to Harry Reid and procedure guru tweeted: "it's fine. If Dems control the floor and gavels, and ties in committees advance bills or nominations to the floor, those are the powers that come with majority control." It's inconceivable that Schumer gives that away, and it would go against the 2001 precedent. "The functional reality of the Senate will not be noticeably different under this than it'd be if Democrats had a bigger majority," Jentleson continued. The two leaders, Schumer and McConnell, will hash out the organizing resolution that determines all this. It will require 60 votes to pass and could be subject to filibuster if someone really wants to raise hell—presumably Rand Paul or Ted Cruz.

There are other outstanding questions about things like subpoena power, but those things will be determined by the committees and the power-sharing agreements worked out by them, which can also change as the committee moves along depending on how much the committee chair wants it. At Judiciary in the past couple of years, Sen. Lindsey Graham was happy to ignore committee rules or change them on the fly to shove through Trump nominees.

There will be complications because Republicans are awful, and Mitch McConnell. The even split gives the so-called moderates—Democrat Joe Manchin and Republicans Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins—outsized power. There is, however, always the threat that Democrats will get so frustrated with obstruction that even Manchin will get to the point of nuking the last vestiges of the filibuster. Both Schumer and McConnell are going to be counting on 100% loyalty among their members, and they're going to be counting on 100% attendance to succeed with their agendas, and neither can probably expect it. But as it stands now, the arrangement shaping up between the leaders is standard and not yet anything to get worked up over.

Wyoming Republicans censure Cheney over Trump impeachment vote

Posted on by Evie Fordham
Wyoming's Carbon County Republican Party voted unanimously to censure Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., for voting with nine other House Republicans to impeach President Trump on charges of "incitement of an insurrection."

Kamala Harris could preside over Trump impeachment trial if John Roberts doesn’t

Posted on by Tyler Olson
The Constitution says that in impeachments for presidents, the chief justice of the Supreme Court is the presiding officer. For lesser impeachments, the presiding officer has been the same as for other Senate business —  either the vice president or a senator. The Constitution is not clear on who should preside over impeachments for former presidents. 

Hillary Clinton, Pelosi Push Conspiracy Theory Suggesting Trump Updated Putin About The Capitol Riots, Demand 9/11-Style Investigation

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi, speaking in a podcast hosted by the former First Lady, promoted a wild theory that President Trump updated Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Capitol riots, and would like to see a 9/11-style commission investigating the events.

“I would love to see his phone records to see if he was talking to Putin the day the insurgents invaded our Capitol,” Clinton told the House Speaker.

Russian collusion conspiracies dominated President Trump’s entire term, as Democrats baselessly claimed his campaign had conspired with Putin to steal the election in 2016.

Clinton’s accusation is offered without proof and is so wild that had somebody on the right offered up such conjecture without evidence they would have been banned from social media.

Clinton would also add that President Trump had “other agendas” while in the White House, and hoped that one day it will become clear who he was “beholden to” and who “pulls his strings.” 

RELATED: National Guard In DC Authorized To Use Lethal Force Days Before Biden’s Inauguration

Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi Want 9/11-Style Commission Into Capitol Riots

Asked by Hillary Clinton whether a 9/11-style commission would be necessary to investigate the riots at the Capitol, Nancy Pelosi responded in the affirmative.

Pelosi claimed she once told Trump, “With you, Mr. President, all roads lead to Putin.”

“I don’t know what Putin has on him politically, financially or personally, but what happened last week was a gift to Putin because Putin wants to undermine democracy in our country and throughout the world,” she said.

Ironically, most of the peaceful protesters at the Capitol were there because they believed there was election fraud and that Democrats had undermined democracy.

Also worth noting – no two individuals did more to undermine the 2016 election and the will of the American people by pushing false allegations against the President than these two.

“So yes, we should have a 9/11 commission and there is strong support in the Congress to do that,” Pelosi added.

RELATED: Poll: Republican Voters Are Siding With Trump Over Mitch McConnell

Moving Forward as a Country

Hard to believe, but Clinton actually posted a clip of the interview with Pelosi and labeled it in-part, “a conversation” about “moving forward as a country.”

Unity doesn’t quite entail harassing your political opponent with baseless claims and conspiracy theories.

Fox News contributor Byron York tweeted a clip of the podcast and added: “There was a House investigation. A Senate investigation. A special prosecutor investigation with the full powers of law enforcement. Obsessive media inquiries. None found what Hillary Clinton wanted to find. So she wants another…”

It’s interesting, isn’t it, that Twitter chose not to add a disclaimer to Clinton’s podcast clip which clearly states a conspiracy theory backed by little to no proof.

Had Trump done this – well, we all know what happened to the President on Twitter.

Hillary Clinton, in an op-ed last week, called the riots at the Capitol “the tragically predictable result of white-supremacist grievances fueled by President Trump” and supported calls for his impeachment.

“Removing Trump from office is essential, and I believe he should be impeached,” she wrote.

“Members of Congress who joined him in subverting our democracy should resign, and those who conspired with the domestic terrorists should be expelled immediately,” Clinton added.

There is no evidence that the Capitol protests were about race. There is no evidence that Republican members of Congress helped the rioters. And there is no evidence that Putin was somehow connected.

These are just the meandering thoughts of a pair of geriatrics bitter that President Trump ascended to the White House in a role they’ll never play.

The post Hillary Clinton, Pelosi Push Conspiracy Theory Suggesting Trump Updated Putin About The Capitol Riots, Demand 9/11-Style Investigation appeared first on The Political Insider.

Senate considering Biden nominees Tuesday, with no announcement yet on handling impeachment, other business

Posted on by Tyler Olson
The Senate is back in town Tuesday for a slate of confirmation hearings on Biden Cabinet nominees, even as there are not yet clear agreements on how the body will handle the impending Trump impeachment trial or its new 50-50 party split.