The House of Representatives is in the process of impeaching President Trump a second time in little more than a year after Vice President Mike Pence rejected invoking the 25th Amendment to remove the commander-in-chief from office. The House approved an article of impeachment on Monday that charged the president with “inciting violence against the government of...
Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.) appeared more optimistic on Wednesday about the possibility of President Donald Trump being removed from office, saying she was “pleased and encouraged” by recent reports of remarks attributed to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“I believe that the Senate, while we’ve heard a lot of rhetoric, I believe they can do anything that they have the will to do,” Demings told MSNBC in an interview.
“I was pleased and encouraged, let me put it that way, to hear the remarks from Sen. McConnell yesterday,” she said. “I believe the time is right. I believe the time is now. And I believe we have more bipartisan support, certainly more than we had the last time.”
Demings’ interview on Wednesday morning came as the House prepared to impeach Trump for a second time, setting him up to be the first president in American history to receive such a historic rebuke.
But unlike his first impeachment in 2019, when no House Republicans voted to remove the president, at least a handful of the chamber’s GOP lawmakers have turned against him in the aftermath of last week’s deadly siege of the Capitol by pro-Trump rioters.
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the third-ranking House Republican, and at least four other members of her caucus have said they will support the single impeachment article charging the president with “willful incitement of insurrection.” As many as a dozen Republicans are expected to vote to impeach Trump.
Making matters worse for the White House, both McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy have privately signaled that they are open to punishing Trump in some way for his role in inciting last week’s riot.
McConnell has indicated Trump’s actions qualify him for removal, POLITICO reported Tuesday, and McCarthy — while still publicly opposed to impeachment — has asked GOP lawmakers whether he should pressure the president to resign.
Demings, a House impeachment manager during Trump’s first Senate trial, was heartened by the developments on Wednesday.
“We’ll see what happens,” she said. “We can get this done if we have the political will to do it.”
A week after the mob stormed the US Capitol leaving staff and members cowering in their offices, in their chambers and waiting out the siege in secure locations, the House will vote -- for the first time in history -- to impeach a sitting President twice.
Rep. Jason Crow on Wednesday described Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and her ideological colleagues as “depraved” and “dangerous” after Greene authored an incendiary tweet ahead of impeachment proceedings for President Donald Trump.
“There are, unfortunately, a handful of members of Congress — and Mrs. Taylor Green is just one of them — who are morally bankrupt,” Crow (D-Colo.) told CNN in an interview. “They are depraved, and they’re frankly dangerous individuals.”
Greene’s (R-Ga.) office did not immediately respond to a request for a response to Crow’s remarks, which came in response to a question about Twitter post Greene authored Tuesday night.
“President Trump will remain in office. This Hail Mary attempt to remove him from the White House is an attack on every American who voted for him,” Taylor Greene wrote in her post, which has since been flagged by Twitter. “Democrats must be held accountable for the political violence inspired by their rhetoric.”
Her tweet comes one week after pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol amid Congress’ certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, resulting in the deaths of at least five people — including a U.S. Capitol Police officer. The president, at a rally earlier that day, had urged his supporters to march to the Capitol and "show strength."
After Congress resumed its certification proceedings following the attack, Greene was one of the 147 congressional Republicans who still objected to the election results. She also drew criticism last week after video footage showed her, along with a handful of other House Republicans, refusing to wear a mask while sheltering with other lawmakers amid the violence. At least three House Democrats have since tested positive for Covid-19.
Greene, a freshman congresswoman elected last November, has previously endorsed elements of the dangerous QAnon conspiracy theory and made Islamophobic comments. She has won praise from Trump, who has called her a “future Republican star.”
President Trump could make history as the only president to be impeached twice as impeachment proceedings begin Wednesday. CBS News chief congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes reports.
This week, hosts Markos Moulitsas and Kerry Eleveld were joined on The Brief by two guests: Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, who talked about the attempted terrorist coup at the Capitol, another economic stimulus package for coronavirus relief, and priorities under the Biden administration; and Adam Jentleson, former Deputy Chief of Staff to former Sen. Harry Reid and author of the new book “Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern Senate,” who shared his thoughts on the shifting makeup of the Senate, the emergence of a new centrist Republican contingent in Congress, and ending the filibuster.
Sen. Schatz kicked off the episode by reflecting on last week’s attempted violent coup by Trump supporters and discussing what’s at stake as Democrats move forward with impeachment proceedings and welcome Joe Biden as the new president. In the aftermath of last week’s violence in the Capitol, Schatz emerged with an even stronger resolve to ensure that democratic processes would continue as normal in the face of threats and other acts of intimidation, saying, “We weren’t going to allow an attempted insurrection to intimidate us or to prevent us from discharging our constitutional duties.”
On priorities, Schatz is passionate about climate action, but he believes a COVID-19 relief package is the most crucial priority at this time—which is especially important for the millions of Americans who are jobless and struggling to make ends meet. He also believes that it is not contradictory for Congress to work on impeachment and also help the Biden administration carry out its policy goals within the first few months of his presidency:
I guess I just want to reject as publicly as I can this premise that the Senate can or should only do one thing at a time. The amount of damage that has been done to American institutions, and to Americans, is just too vast for to say, ‘Well, I mean, can we just fit that into a reconciliation bill? I don’t know.’ And the framing, even among liberals, has always been sort of that Rahm Emanuel conversation with Barack Obama: Do you want to do healthcare, or do you want to do immigration, or do you want to do climate, and in what order, because you know, you’ve only have so much political capital you can spend? … I really do think that we should reject that thinking.
In thinking about the impeachment process and passing legislation during the next four years under the Biden administration, Schatz also criticized another roadblock that has been normalized, which is the slow pace of passing legislation — making Congress less efficient: “Our inability to process legislation quickly is a huge part of the problem in the United State Senate.”
Next, the pair welcomed Jentleson onto the show, a veteran U.S. Senate staffer who weighed in on what the new chamber dynamic will like be now that Democrats have regained the majority after last week’s victories in the Georgia runoffs. But even with the majority, Democrats could find themselves obstructed due to the filibuster. To Markos’ question about whether or not Republicans might join in to help bring an end to the filibuster, Jentleson said:
You can sort of see this centrist party taking shape before our eyes, and mainly taking shape in the Senate, where you have Murkowski, Collins … Romney, and on our side, Manchin and King, and the thing about majority rule is that it would actually dramatically empower that group of centrist Republicans. That’s, you know, not my goal here. But it is still a fact that in a majority-rule Senate, those people, like Murkowski, are far more powerful than they would be in a sixty-vote Senate. In a sixty-vote Senate, they’re just one faction among many that you’d have to assemble to get to sixty. In a majority-vote Senate, they are the ones straddling that threshold, and they’ll be the kingmakers on every single bill.
When a minority of the Senate represents as little as 11% of the U.S. population, Jentleson emphasized, the filibuster process can result in particularly skewed policy results. Even the framers of the Constitution understood this:
Fundamentally, the problem that we face, and the reason Democrats are going to face obstruction from Republicans—and the reason that Biden’s agenda is likely to be blocked—is that Republicans will simply use this power to force a sixty-vote hurdle and block everything the Democrats want to do. And so reforming all the hours, and all that stuff, I don’t oppose it. But it doesn’t fix the fundamental problem—which is taking away the power from the minority to block the majority from doing anything … The reason that is such an important dynamic is that we live in such a polarized environment where … once side succeeds by making the other fail.
Ironically, this is exactly what the framers foresaw when they argued vehemently against imposing a supermajority threshold in the Senate. They wrote in the Federalist Papers that you can’t give what they called a ‘pertinacious minority’ the ability to block the majority, because if you did, they would be unable to resist that temptation, and they would use it to embarrass the majority repeatedly. So they knew exactly what was going to happen—they foresaw Mitch McConnell, they saw him coming … We have to take the option away from the minority to just block the majority for the purposes of making them look bad, and then the minority rides voter discontent back to power in the next election.
The head of the House Freedom Caucus has called for Rep. Liz Cheney to resign her leadership role in the Republican party after she publicly backed the impeachment of President Trump over the Capitol riots. “I don’t think she should be the chair of the Republican conference anymore,” Rep. Andy Biggs told Fox News of...
✌ A president who wakes up and the first thing on his mind is his country, not his Twitter feed
✌ A competent cabinet, none of whom have degrees in grifting or ransacking
✌ The White House Science Fair
Continued…
✌ Democratic control of the Executive and Legislative branches…at the same time!
✌ A First Lady whose resting face isn’t a creepy sneer-scowl hybrid and who doesn't wear clothing boasting of the fact that she doesn't care
✌ Membership in the Paris Climate Accord and respect for our NATO allies
✌ A press secretary who tells the truth
✌ 15-flush toilets
✌ Senate Committee chairwomen and men with a “D" after their name
✌ The nuclear launch codes in the possession of a stable person
✌ POTUS and FLOTUS attending the Kennedy Center Honors again
✌ An independent Justice Department
✌ Dogs—and a cat—running around the White House
✌ Just getting shit done
And now, our feature presentation...
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Cheers and Jeers for Wednesday, January 13, 2021
Note: Today is Wednesday the 13th. No need for any special precautions, but it’s as good a day as any to take a few minutes to check up on the condition of the porn collection in your panic room. Remember: mildew is not your friend. —Clarence Thomas
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By the Numbers:
1 week!!!
Weeks 'til inauguration day: One!!!
Days 'til the Perseverance rover lands on Mars: 36
Percent of Americans polled by Gallup who describe themselves as "totally" conservative, moderate, and liberal: 36%, 35%, 25%
Percent of Americans polled by ABC News-Ipsos who blame Trump for last Wednesday's coup attempt: 67%
Trump job approval in the new Quinnipiac poll: 33%
Number of jobs lost in December, via the Labor Department's latest report of the Trump presidency: -140,000
Percent chance that GM's new logo is designed to draw attention to its new focus on electric cars: 100%
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Mid-weekRapture Index: 184 (including 4 false prophets and 1 important point for the seditionists by God). Soul Protection Factor 24 lotion is recommended if you’ll be walking amongst the heathen today.
CHEERS to one week and counting. In seven days, Joe Biden will become our 46thpresident. Time to break out the inaugural fun facts:
» John Quincy Adams was the first president sworn in wearing long trousers (1825).
» Abraham Lincoln was the first to include African-Americans in his parade (1865). Women were included for the first time in Woodrow Wilson's second inaugural parade (1917).
William Howard Taft’s 1909 inauguration. “It took 6,000 men and 500 wagons to clear 58,000 tons of snow and slush from the parade route.”
» Neither Theodore Roosevelt nor John Quincy Adams swore their oath on a Bible.
» Jimmy Carter's inaugural parade featured solar heat for the reviewing stand and handicap-accessible viewing (1977).
» Ronald Reagan's second inaugural had to compete with Super Bowl Sunday (1985).
» The first ceremony broadcast on the Internet was Bill Clinton's second inauguration (1997).
» Four retiring presidents have not attended the inaugurations of their successors. Those who were absent: John Adams missed Thomas Jefferson's inaugural. John Quincy Adams was not present at Andrew Jackson's. Andrew Johnson was not at Ulysses Grant's ceremony. Richard Nixon was not present at Gerald Ford's inaugural. [Trump will be #5 when he snubs Joe Biden’s swearing-in.]
And here's some hopeful news: we're now close enough that we can check the Inauguration Day weather forecast for DC. (The historic stats are here at the National Weather Service.) It couldn't be more symbolic, according to The Weather Channel: morning clouds giving way to afternoon sunshine, with a warmer-than-usual high of 45. Or as we call it in Maine: shorts weather.
CHEERS to impeachment day. Today is impeachment day. The president is going to be impeached. He is a bad president. He tried to become a dictator. He cannot be one. The End.
JEERS to pissing your life away. Sheldon Adelson was born of humble roots in Boston 87 years ago. Then he turned into a greed-obsessed right-wing scumbag…the epitome of the bubble-protected billionaire ($33 billion to be exact) for whom the world was a personal playground to be exploited no matter how many people got hurt. Exhibit A: the countless men and women his casinos lured in and turned into gambling addicts. Plus…
☹ He and his wife Miriam Adelson were Donald Trump's largest donors; they provided the largest donation to Trump's 2016 campaign, his presidential inauguration, his defense fund against the Mueller investigation into Russian interference, and the 2020 campaign.
Can’t imagine why.
☹ Adelson's newspaper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, was the only major newspaper nationwide to endorse Trump in 2016
☹ Deutsche Welle reported that he was one of the largest backers of a hard-right fringe network promoting Islamophobia.
☹ Haaretz wrote that Adelson had "hijacked" the Israeli-American Council to turn it into a pressure group for his "hard-right agenda."
☹ On Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program he said: "You pick up your cell phone and you call somewhere in Nebraska and you say 'OK, let it go' and so there's an atomic weapon goes over, ballistic missiles in the middle of the desert that doesn't hurt a soul, maybe a couple of rattlesnakes and scorpions or whatever."
☹ In February 2013 the Las Vegas Sands, in a regulatory filing, acknowledged that it had likely violated federal law that prohibits the bribing of foreign officials. Allegedly, Chinese officials were bribed to allow Adelson to build his Macau casino.
Well, he's dead now. I'd bet money his trip to the afterlife will involve taking the 'Down' elevator. But, darn it, I have this dumb rule about saying something nice about the recently departed. So here goes: he was once a candy vendor. Ah, the banality of evil.
JEERS to strange reactions. Maine's senior senator Susan Collins says that the first thought that popped into her noggin last Wednesday afternoon, when the insurrection began, was that "the Iranians had followed through on their threat to strike the Capitol." Wow—that's like leaping from A to Z in a single bound while skipping B through Y. But, to be fair, I can actually understand why she'd think that and get confused. After all, the Republican terrorists' actions were screaming "Death to America."
CHEERS to discus lite. Wham-O began producing the "Frisbee" 64 years ago today. Ever wonder where the name comes from?
The Frisbie Baking Company (1871-1958) of Bridgeport, Connecticut, made pies that were sold to many New England colleges. Hungry college students soon discovered that the empty pie tins could be tossed and caught, providing endless hours of game and sport.
A Frisbee from the‘76 Democratic convention.
Many colleges have claimed to be the home of 'he who was first to fling.' Yale College has even argued that in 1820, a Yale undergraduate named Elihu Frisbie grabbed a passing collection tray from the chapel and flung it out into the campus, thereby becoming the true inventor of the Frisbie and winning glory for Yale. That tale is unlikely to be true since the words 'Frisbie's Pies' was embossed in all the original pie tins and from the word 'Frisbie' was coined the common name for the toy.
Frisbees remind me of the Republican party: Lightweight, logic as contorted as a no-look reverse-flick backhanded corkscrew air bounce, and the only thing keeping them aloft is spin.
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Ten years ago in C&J: January 13, 2011
JEERS to odd departures. A Republican district chairman in Arizona is calling it quits because of vitriol coming from his own side. In announcing his decision, Anthony Miller cited "threats from the Tea Party," a group that apparently doesn't find him radical or irrational enough for their liking. Miller says he wants to spend more time with his family. Alive. [1/13/21 Update: A reminder that the GOP has been the party of violent whackadoos, who have no problem threatening their own leaders, for a long time.]
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And just one more…
CHEERS to naming rights. Lost in all the hoopla about trivial issues like—[Reads notes off hand]—World War III, the immolation of Planet Earth, and Republicans' ongoing effort to throw America into the toilet and flush 15 times, is the most pressing issue of our generation: what parents are naming their spawn, of course. So allow me, via babycenter.com, to terminate the suspense: the most popular boy names of 2020 were Liam, Noah, Jackson and Aiden. Top girl names were Sophia, Olivia, Riley, and Emma. I went through a period of confusion when I was young, thanks to my mom and dad. For the first eighteen years of my life I thought my last name was Billy and my first name was Dammit.
Have a happy humpday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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