House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy rejects calls within the Republican Caucus to remove Rep. Liz Cheney from party leadership over her vote to impeach President Donald Trump, a McCarthy spokesperson confirmed to POLITICO on Thursday.
A number of GOP members have demanded Cheney be ousted from her conference chair position after she became the highest-ranking House Republican to vote for Trump’s impeachment on Wednesday. Cheney was also the second House Republican to openly endorse impeachment on a count of inciting insurrection, in a scathing statement she issued on Tuesday night.
“There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution,” Cheney wrote in the statement, blaming Trump for inciting a mob of rioters to trash the Capitol last week.
The blowback from some of Cheney’s Trump-loyal colleagues was swift. Members of the Freedom Caucus wrote a petition to debate her ouster Wednesday from her leadership position. In response, Cheney reiterated that she had no plans to step down.
“I’m not going anywhere. This is a vote of conscience,” the Wyoming lawmaker told POLITICO on Wednesday.
The Washington Examiner first reported McCarthy’s opposition to Cheney’s ouster.
Cheney was directly singled out in the insurrection on the Capitol after Trump named her in his speech to his supporters just before they stormed the building.
“We’ve got to get rid of the weak Congresspeople, the ones that aren’t any good, the Liz Cheneys of the world,” Trump said.
Five people died as a result of the Capitol attack.
Two-time popular vote loser Donald Trump has also now achieved the distinction of being the only two-time impeached occupant of the Oval Office, earning half of the four presidential impeachments in U.S. history. He's unlikely to make history by being the only one to be removed from office by Senate conviction, however. That's unless he does something extreme in the next six days, which he is more than capable of, but might be a stretch—even for him
That's in large part because current Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has refused soon-to-be Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer’s request to expedite the hearing. The two could have agreed to use emergency authority to bring the Senate back as soon as Thursday or Friday to start hearings and potentially have it done before Inauguration Day next Wednesday. But that would have required McConnell giving a damn about the republic. Instead, he said Wednesday that the trial will begin at the Senate's "first regular meeting following receipt of the article from the House." The first regular meeting of the Senate is Jan. 19. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has not said yet when she'll send the charge to the Senate.
Campaign ActionThe problem is, of course, acting upon and prioritizing President-elect Joe Biden's 100-day agenda, which includes some pretty essential stuff. Biden has suggested that the Senate bifurcate its time, divided between confirming his Cabinet members and working on COVID-19 relief on the one hand, and impeachment on the other. Presumably, Pelosi, Schumer, and Biden are discussing this now, trying to determine the best course of action, now that McConnell has screwed them all by refusing to take responsibility for Trump. As usual.
Conviction will require two-thirds of the Senate, meaning 17 Republicans will have to join with Democrats to convict. The problem McConnell and those Republicans face is that every day that passes reveals more horrific details of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, and more implications that there was a level of Republican institutional support for it, from members of Congress who might have been complicit to the Republican Attorneys General Association. There's a whole lot of smoke right now obscuring just how deep the plotting for the insurrection went, and when it's cleared it could be exceedingly bad news for Republicans. That's where the delay—allowing for a lot more discovery—could help seal Trump's fate with Republicans.
McConnell is making a bet, apparently, that it won't work that way, that the delay will distract the nation from the horror that has been replayed over and over again of their house, the Capitol, being besieged and vandalized by a mob screaming for blood. The good news is that Republicans' initial efforts of pretending at "unity" didn't win over a single Democrat, and in fact 10 Republicans voted to impeach. Biden is not saying anything about "looking forward, not back" and is not trying to sweep any of this under the rug of history. Corporate America is further distancing itself from Republicans by the minute. This is not going to go away with Trump—and the Republican Party can't afford for it to. The reckoning will come, and Republicans are going to again feel the pressure of choosing to stand with Trump or with the country.
As Democrat lawmakers celebrate their vote to impeach President Trump a second time, several of those lawmakers are attempting to take things one step further.
Representatives Linda Sanchez (D-CA) and Joaquin Castro (D-TX) are working on a bill that would prevent the naming of anything – including schools, highways, or federal buildings – after the 45th President.
Sanchez claimed that her presence in the House Chambers last Wednesday as violent protests broke out in the Capitol building is the catalyst for drafting the legislation.
RELATED: Dem Rep. Swalwell Compares President Trump To Osama bin Laden
“I am working on a bill that would mean that nothing-not even a bench, no airport, no highway, no school-nothing-ever bear the name of this traitor.”
Rep. Linda Sánchez Doesn't Want Anything — 'Not Even a Bench' — Named After Trump After Riot https://t.co/ng0jYfWp2k
— People (@people) January 11, 2021
In a statement, Congressman Castro said that, “President Trump incited and insurrection that damaged some of our nation’s most significant and sacred federal property. Donald Trump should never become a future generation’s confederate symbol.”
In addition to supporting the impeachment and removal of Donald Trump, I am also preparing legislation that would prohibit any federal building or property from being named after President Donald J. Trump.
1/2
— Joaquin Castro (@JoaquinCastrotx) January 8, 2021
Sanchez claims that, the night before the protests, she called her husband to tell him where her will was. The security alerts came around 1:15 pm on Wednesday afternoon.
In an interview with “People” Magazine, Sanchez says that, “Something told me, ‘You better leave.'”
Both Sanchez and Castro voted for the second impeachment of the president.
RELATED: CNN’s Jake Tapper: GOP Needs ‘Political Exorcist,’ Republicans ‘Clearly Have Lost Their Minds’
In addition to calling Trump a “traitor,” Sanchez went on to say, “I don’t think he deserves any of the benefits that are conferred on prior presidents. I don’t believe that a seditious occupant of the White House should ever have anything named after him.”
Sanchez is also among a number of Congressmen and women who would like Trump removed via the 25th Amendment, which would strip the president of his powers.
However, she says she is not optimistic of that prospect. “Given that those around Trump have never stood up to him, I have a hard time believing that they will meet this moment with the, with the appropriate response. So we have also signed onto articles of impeachment to try to remove him.”
Julian Castro, Brother of Joaquin and former presidential candidate, is in total agreement with his twin. he tweeted out, “I gave him that idea.”
I gave him that idea. https://t.co/BAroYHCrM1
— Julián Castro (@JulianCastro) January 8, 2021
Both Castro brothers, natives of Texas, have also called for Texas Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) to resign due to his and other Republican legislators objections to last week’s electoral college certification.
“He has conducted himself shamelessly, and I think he has done this because he believes it’s the only way, the only chance, the only chance he has to win the Republican nomination for president.”
The post Democrats Drafting Bill To Prevent Anything Being Named After President Trump appeared first on The Political Insider.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski lashed President Donald Trump on Thursday for inciting violence at the Capitol last week and praised the House for impeaching him — but the Alaska Republican will not yet reveal whether she plans to vote to convict Trump in the Senate’s upcoming trial.
Murkowski, who last week said Trump should resign in the aftermath of the deadly insurrection at the Capitol, is among a group of GOP senators that appears likely to vote in favor of conviction when the Senate puts Trump on trial beginning next week.
In a statement, she noted that Wednesday’s House vote impeaching the president drew bipartisan support and had the highest number of votes for any impeachment of a president. Ten House GOP members voted in favor of impeaching Trump, including Rep. Liz Cheney, the No. 3 House Republican. Murkowski slammed Trump for his “false rhetoric” asserting that the election was “rigged” against him, as well as for his attempt to pressure state elections officials into overturning President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
“On the day of the riots, President Trump’s words incited violence, which led to the injury and deaths of Americans — including a Capitol Police officer — the desecration of the Capitol, and briefly interfered with the government’s ability to ensure a peaceful transfer of power,” Murkowski said. “Such unlawful actions cannot go without consequence and the House has responded swiftly, and I believe, appropriately, with impeachment.”
Murkowski’s statement represents the strongest denunciation of Trump since the House voted 232 to 197 on Wednesday evening to impeach the president for “incitement of insurrection.” But she emphasized that she will not announce her vote on whether to convict Trump until after the House impeachment managers and the president’s lawyers present their arguments.
Last week, Murkowski told the Anchorage Daily News that Trump should resign and said that “if the Republican Party has become nothing more than the party of Trump, I sincerely question whether this is the party for me.”
The Senate is set to begin the impeachment trial next week once the Senate returns to Washington, though the current timeline overlaps with Biden’s inauguration, which is slated for Wednesday.
