Month: February 2021

Impeachment managers invoke words of John Kelly knocking Trump

Posted on by By Nick Niedzwiadek

House impeachment managers on Wednesday used former White House chief of staff John Kelly’s words in the aftermath of the Capitol as they pressed their case against former President Donald Trump.

The day after the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection, Kelly said in a CNN interview that he believed Trump willfully riled up the mob that stormed into the Capitol.

“The president knows who he's talking to when he tweets or when he makes statements,” Kelly told CNN. “He knows who he's talking to. He knows what he wants them to do.”

At the time Kelly said it was “no surprise” that the deadly events took place after Trump and others fed the president’s supporters a steady stream of falsehoods about the results of the November election.

Rep. Joe Neguse, one of the Democratic impeachment managers, seized on Kelly’s turn-of-phrase.

“No surprise. Think about that — no surprise,” he said. “The president had every reason to know that this would happen because he assembled the mob, he summoned the mob, and he incited the mob.

“He knew when he took that podium on that fateful morning, that those in attendance had heeded his words, and they were waiting for his orders to begin fighting,” Neguse continued.

In that same interview, Kelly — who left the White House in 2019 — said he would have supported an effort to oust Trump from office if he were still in the administration.

He also laid blame on the president’s advisers whom Kelly believed did little to push back on Trump’s impulses.

“Toward the end of my time there, all I ever heard from these devotees in the White House is, you have to let Trump be Trump,” Kelly said. “Well, let me just say, this is what happens.”

Posted in Uncategorized

Ken Starr says Trump’s second impeachment ‘unconstitutional’ and sets ‘dangerous precedent’

Posted on by Roman Chiarello
Former independent counsel Ken Starr says the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump is an "unconstitutional process" and sets a "very dangerous precedent" because Trump has already left office.

The GOP’s image is tanking among Americans—almost entirely because of sinking Republican support

Posted on (Updated by Kerry Eleveld

Americans' views of the Republican Party have taken a serious hit ever since the November election and the party's repeated efforts to overturn the election results, according to new polling from Gallup. 

Just 37% of adults say they have a favorable view of the party, a precipitous 7-point slide in just a few months from the 43% who viewed it positively in November. In the same period, the Democratic Party gained a few points in favorability, with 48% of respondents now viewing it favorably. That gives Democrats what Gallup calls a "rare double-digit advantage in favorability."

But what is perhaps most striking is where the GOP is bleeding support from—its own ranks. "Since November, the GOP's image has suffered the most among Republican Party identifiers, from 90% favorable to 78%. Independents' and Democrats' opinions are essentially unchanged," writes Gallup. That image problem isn't merely theoretical; it has already resulted in tens of thousands of GOP defections across the country since November as conservative voters officially switch their party affiliations to something other than Republican. 

On the flip side, Democrats' gain in favorability has come mostly from independents, whose positive views of party have increased by 7 points since November, 41% to 48%.

The GOP has "often" sunk into sub-40 territory, according to Gallup. When Donald Trump forced a lengthy government shutdown over his border wall in January 2019, for instance, GOP favorability fell to 38%. But news of the party's plummeting image comes right as GOP lawmakers rally around Trump—the main driver of their recent disfavored status—to prevent his conviction on impeachment charges. 

Historically, the party that initiates impeachment proceedings takes a political hit. But Trump and his flagrant efforts to subvert the will of the people have proven to be historically unpopular, and Democrats are actually gaining in popularity due to their efforts to hold Trump accountable and safeguard American democracy.   

Republicans, on the other hand, are sticking with Trump no matter the consequences because they simply can't imagine a world in which they have to appeal to anything beyond white identity to win elections.