Lindsey Graham Predicts ‘Not Guilty’ Impeachment Votes Are Growing After ‘Absurd’ Arguments From Democrats

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) went on Fox News on Wednesday night to tell host Sean Hannity that he believes that “not guilty” votes are growing in former President Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment trial.

Graham went on to explain that this was due to House impeachment managers floating the “absurd” conspiracy theory that the riots were planned by Trump.

He then accused Democrats of failing to investigate their impeachment claims thoroughly enough before moving forward with it, which is why their “incitement claim is falling apart, and they’ve had to come up with a new “cockamamie” theory.

Graham Says ‘Not Guilty’ Votes Are Growing

“Let me tell your viewers: the “not guilty” vote is growing after today,” Graham said. “I think most Republicans found the presentation by the House managers offensive and absurd.”

After admitting what happened at the Capitol was terrible, Graham went on to say, “I don’t remember any of the House managers saying a damn thing when they were trying to break into my house and going after [Republican Senator] Susan Collins [of Maine] and spitting on all of us.”

“If this is a problem for a politician to give the speech that President Trump did, well, then [Vice President] Kamala Harris has a real problem, because she actively engaged in bailing out rioters,” he added.

“And here is what I would suggest. if you are a politician trying to raise bail for people accused of rioting, you are inciting more riots,” the Senator said. 

Related: Lindsey Graham Rips Impeachment – ‘We’re Doing A Lot Of Damage To The Country Because People Hate Trump’

Graham Says Impeachment Argument Has Fallen Apart

Graham went on to discuss just how much Democrats’ impeachment argument has fallen apart.

“If there was preplanning, there was no incitement,” he said.

“The managers have got this cockamamie idea absurd theory that Donald Trump was monitoring the Proud Boys’ website, and other far right websites, and that he and [former White House social media manager] Dan Scavino knew this was going to happen and they encouraged it,” Graham continued. “That is Looney Tunes.”

“And you know why they are saying that? Because if the president didn’t know, and it was actually preplanned, he is not guilty,” Graham added.

“So for the first time today, they are trying to create a storyline that Donald Trump was in on it before it happened, that he was monitoring the proud boys and other crazy websites and he knew they were come to Washington with violence on their mind, and he encouraged it,” he said.

“That beyond bizarre,” Graham continued. “This is not evidence. This is a liberal democratic novel being presented as evidence.”

Related: Lindsey Graham Teaming With Dick Durbin To Introduce Legislation That Could Grant Citizenship To DREAMers

Graham Wants To Know What Pelosi Knew

After saying that he would like to know how much Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) knew about the riots in advance, Graham concluded by saying, “This is why you don’t want to have snap impeachments. Evidence really does matter.”

This piece was written by James Samson on February 11, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

Read more at LifeZette:
Bill Maher Claims Christianity Is To Blame For Capitol Riot
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Jim Jordan Claims Democrats Are ‘Scared’ Of Trump

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Cory Booker Claims No More Evidence Is Needed To Conclude ‘Trump Violated His Oath Of Office’

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) went on CNN on Thursday morning to claim that “we do not need more evidence to come to the conclusion that Trump violated his oath of office.”

Booker Says No More Evidence Is Needed To Impeach

In making this claim, Booker cited Trump’s “prolific tweeting,” and his silence as his followers tried to find then-Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi during the Capitol riots last month.

“They literally were saying they were taking direction from him. They were reading his tweet publicly out to other rioters as they chanted, ‘Hang Mike Pence,” Booker said. 

“I do not understand how you cannot look [at] this prolific tweeting that went on and then the silence afterward. This is a president that knows how to tell people to stop,” he added. 

Related: Lindsey Graham Predicts ‘Not Guilty’ Impeachment Votes Are Growing After ‘Absurd’ Arguments From Democrats

Booker Doubles Down

“I don’t know how you can’t look at the fact that it was well known that the riotous, murderous mob was in the Capitol for an hour plus, and then the two things you hear from the president is one, him replaying his own speech on Twitter and then telling the mob that Mike Pence had failed them,” Booker continued. 

“It is hard to even venture to say that the commander-in-chief who swore an oath to protect this sacred space did not fail in his duty, did not betray that oath,” Booker concluded. “We do not need more evidence, in my opinion, to come to the conclusion that … Donald Trump violated his oath of office.”

Related: Lindsey Graham Rips Impeachment – ‘We’re Doing A Lot Of Damage To The Country Because People Hate Trump’

Trump Impeachment

This comes as Trump’s impeachment trial is ongoing in the Senate, with the former president being accused of inciting the Capitol riots last month.

He was already impeached by the House over this for a second time last month, but it remains to be seen whether Democrats will be successful in impeaching him in the Senate.

Earlier this month, Booker released a statement calling for the Senate to impeach Trump, saying that “it brings me no satisfaction to come to this conclusion. And yet we all swore an oath to  ‘support and defend the Constitution of the United States.’”

This piece was written by James Samson on February 11, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

Read more at LifeZette:
Bill Maher Claims Christianity Is To Blame For Capitol Riot
The Left Hates Guns. We Get It. But Do They Have to be So Gun Dumb About It?
Jim Jordan Claims Democrats Are ‘Scared’ Of Trump

The post Cory Booker Claims No More Evidence Is Needed To Conclude ‘Trump Violated His Oath Of Office’ appeared first on The Political Insider.

Newt Gingrich Slams Trump Impeachment Lawyers – ‘Absolute Lack Of A Coherent Defense’

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich spoke out on Wednesday to rip into former President Donald Trump’s impeachment defense team, saying that they have an “incoherent” message and adding he had “no idea” what the lawyers were doing.

Gingrich Speaks Out On Impeachment 

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen as bad a defense team as the president sent up, and I have no idea what they thought they were doing,” Gingrich said on Fox News

“There’s a good case to be made,” he added. “I thought they were going to make it. I think it’s amazing that they only lost one Republican given the absolute lack of a coherent defense.”

The former Speaker went on to say that he would have been “beside myself” if this was his own legal team.

“I’m surprised he didn’t fire [Bruce Castor] some time during the afternoon,” Gingrich continued. “It was that bad. Bad lawyers can lose good cases. That’s the danger here.”

Related: Gingrich: Pelosi Impeachment Push Is Because She’s Scared Trump Might Run Again – And Win

This comes after sources close to Trump’s defense team reportedly told both Politico and CNN that Trump was “not happy” with how he was being represented by his lawyers.

“President Trump was not happy with the performance of his legal team in action,” one source said.

Gingrich Discusses Democrats’ Strategy

Gingrich then talked about Democrats, describing them as the “party of Hollywood” and saying that while their video presentation was effective, they were still unfairly trying to pin the actions of the Capitol riots on Trump.

“The fact is that to say to [74.2 million] Americans we’re going to dictate to you who you are allowed to vote for is just not sustainable,” Gingrich said.

 “But on the other hand the Democrats are trying to scar up Trump to weaken him …. Trump’s greatest ally is Joe Biden, and every time Biden does something that is destructive, it further reminds the Trump voters why it’s unacceptable to allow the Washington politicians to dictate to the rest of us,” he added. 

Related: Newt Gingrich Predicts Democrats Will Throw Away Congress ‘Once Again’ With ‘Radical’ Budget Agenda

Democrats have already impeached Trump twice in the House of Representatives, and he is the first former president to stand trial in the U.S. Senate.

If he is impeached in the Senate, he will not be allowed to run for office again.

This piece was written by James Samson on February 11, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

Read more at LifeZette:
Bill Maher Claims Christianity Is To Blame For Capitol Riot
The Left Hates Guns. We Get It. But Do They Have to be So Gun Dumb About It?
Jim Jordan Claims Democrats Are ‘Scared’ Of Trump

The post Newt Gingrich Slams Trump Impeachment Lawyers – ‘Absolute Lack Of A Coherent Defense’ appeared first on The Political Insider.

Republicans Release Plan to Target Vulnerable Democrats, Take Back The House

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) released a list of 47 “vulnerable Democrats” they plan to target in 2022 in an effort to take back the House.

The memo reminds voters that Republicans are “just five seats short of a majority” following some unexpected successes in the 2020 election.

NRCC Chairman Tom Emmer says that in the first few weeks of the Biden administration, Americans are already “seeing the job-killing initiatives House Democrats support.”

House Democrats on the Education and Labor Committee, for example, are pushing for a $15 minimum wage proposal, despite warnings from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that it would put 1.4 million Americans out of work.

“We will relentlessly hold House Democrats accountable for their socialist agenda,” Emmers adds, “and ensure voters understand the damaging impact policies like defunding the police, government-run health care, and ending the Keystone XL Pipeline will have on Americans’ everyday lives.”

RELATED: Democrats Have A Back-Up Plan That Might Still Bar Trump From Running Again If Impeachment Fails

Republicans Will Target Democrats, But They’re a Target As Well

While House Republicans will be targeting Democrats to win back the majority from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, some of them will be targets themselves.

Former President Donald Trump is reportedly setting his sights on possible primary challenges to “Never Trump” Republicans, according to Newsmax.

His son Eric was floating the idea even prior to the impeachment fiasco.

“I will personally work to defeat every single Republican Senator/Congressman who doesn’t stand up against this fraud,” he tweeted regarding the 2020 election. “They will be primaried in their next election and they will lose.”

We doubt things have been patched up after the events that followed.

In mid-January, 10 Republicans in the House voted to impeach the former President for “incitement of insurrection.”

RELATED: 64 Percent Of Republican Voters Would Join Trump If He Started A New Party

What Will Trump Do?

The ability of Republican candidates to target their Democrat counterparts may very well come down to what Trump does going forward.

Anger over Republicans joining Democrats in the impeachment effort has boiled over – a report notes that 7 out of the 10 GOP lawmakers who voted in favor of impeaching Trump are already facing primary challenges for their congressional seats.

Further complicating matters, some have speculated whether or not Trump would be better served to start his own party due to a fracture with the GOP.

A poll from earlier this month shows an overwhelming percentage of Republican voters would join a new political party established by the former president.

It seems the NRCC might want to focus on shoring up support from the former President if they are to have any chance of regaining a majority in the House.

The post Republicans Release Plan to Target Vulnerable Democrats, Take Back The House appeared first on The Political Insider.

Dems Took Way More Dark Money Than The GOP – Will They Now Swear It Off?

By Susan Crabtree for RealClearPolitics

Nearly a decade ago, Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold warned that his party would “lose its soul” if it began taking unlimited corporate money with plans to wean itself off the addiction later –  especially if the funds helped Democrats gain control of the White House and Congress.

Fast-forward to 2021 and that warning is facing its first big test.

Anonymous “dark money” donors provided $145 million to pro-Biden groups during the 2020 election, helping pave his way to the White House and dwarfing the $28.4 million spent on behalf of Donald Trump, Bloomberg reported in late January.

When it comes to control of the Senate, Stacey Abrams’ voter-registration groups, Fair Fight and its dark-money arm, Fair Fight Action, also are widely credited with helping Democrats win the Georgia runoffs.

Liberal dark-money groups, which (like conservative ones) don’t disclose the source of their funds, started out-spending their counterparts in 2018, according to a report by Issue One, an advocacy group calling for more restrictions on campaign fundraising.

RELATED: Report: Biden Received Over $145 Million In ‘Dark Money’ Campaign Cash

The Center for Responsive Politics, a group that closely tracks campaign spending, found that liberal dark-money groups outspent conservatives ones in 2020 as well.

Despite benefiting from the anonymous largesse, Democrats have seemed uneasy – at least publicly — cozying up to these big donors whose identities are obscured.

During his presidential primary campaign last spring, Joe Biden said one of his first priorities would be signing a comprehensive campaign-finance reform bill that, among other things, would force dark-money groups to disclose their donors.

But in the first few weeks of the new administration, passing a COVID relief bill to help struggling Americans, along with impeaching Trump, have become the two main priorities set before Congress.

For now at least, the reform bills have been shunted aside despite Democrats giving them top legislative billing – dubbing them HR 1 and S 1 to signify their importance. 

Instead of prominent Democrats, including Biden, aggressively pressing for more campaign-finance disclosure, there’s been a proliferation of news about plans by liberal groups to spend more dark-money to help congressional Democrats keep their majorities and push the party’s agenda to the left.

Just last week, American Bridge, which spent $62 million in 2020 on ads aimed at defeating Trump, announced it would relaunch next month with a nine-figure ad budget to defend Biden’s record and maintain Democrats’ congressional majorities in 2022.

Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez will serve as a co-chair of the initiative, along with former Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, former Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards, and former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.

RELATED: Biden’s COVID Team Warns There Might Not Be Herd Immunity Until Thanksgiving Or Even Later

Sixty-two liberal groups, including Demand Justice and Fix Our Senate (a trade name for the Sixteen Thirty Fund) — both organizations that hide their donors’ identities — sent a letter Friday to Majority Leader Chuck Schumer calling on him to abolish the Senate filibuster to help break any gridlock and advance a liberal agenda.

Demand Justice and several other dark-money liberal groups are also leading a separate effort called “Unrig Our Courts,” a push to undo Trump’s judicial legacy by pressing Congress to add seats to the Supreme Court, impose term limits on high court justices, and improve judiciary “ethics and transparency requirements.”

The hypocrisy of a group that obscures its donors calling for more disclosure wasn’t lost on conservatives who oppose campaign finance disclosure mandates.

“We now know that many of these dark-money groups are part of a massive operation on the left,” Adam Laxalt, a former Nevada attorney general who serves as an outside counsel for Americans for Public Trust, a conservative watchdog group, said in a statement.

“It’s not surprising that these and other progressive groups have set their sights on our courts, the last obstacle to complete power.”

Even though Democrats insist they are fighting fire with fire and will not “unilaterally disarm,” with their majority in both chambers of Congress they now have the power to advance the reforms they have long advocated, notes Michael Beckel, Issue One’s research director.

RELATED: Texas Sheriff Claims Biden Admin Releasing Illegal Immigrants Into U.S. Without COVID Testing

“The increased dark-money spending by liberal groups in recent years should make it clear to all members of Congress that neither party is immune from being pummeled by attack ads funded by anonymous donors,” Beckel told RealClearPolitics.

“Democrats and Republicans alike should be motivated to end secret spending in our elections. Lawmakers in both parties should be taking dark money seriously and working to bring more transparency to campaigns.”

Yet, as Feingold predicted, ending the addiction to big money is proving difficult for Democrats now that they’re playing the game better than Republicans.

Democrats always opposed Citizens United, the Supreme Court’s landmark 2010 decision that allowed virtually unlimited money in politics.

They said opening the floodgates to unlimited donations flew in the face of their commitment to helping average Americans and those struggling to get by.

But Democrats also opposed Citizens United because they thought Republicans and their deep-pocketed corporate allies would benefit the most from the ruling.

“Their mantra of not ‘unliterally disarming’ was really their justification for learning how to master super PACs and dark money and all that, and they’re doing a better job of it right now than the Republicans,” Craig Holman, a lobbyist for the group Public Citizen, which advocates for stricter campaign-finance laws, told NBC News last fall. Holman went a step further, predicting more Democratic complacence on the issue if they were to win the Senate and the White House.

RELATED: Report: Democrats Have A Back-Up Plan That Might Still Bar Trump From Running Again If Impeachment Fails

Under such a scenario — which became political reality — Holman said his group would have to “hold their word over their head.”

Now, Senate Democrats who sponsored S 1 are not pushing for prompt consideration of the bill. Sen. Jeff Merkley (pictured), an Oregon Democrat and the lead sponsor, did not respond to repeated requests for comment from RCP.

A spokesman for Schumer also did not respond to an RCP inquiry. Schumer is up for reelection in 2022 and could face a primary challenge from his left flank, perhaps from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Majority Forward, a nonprofit with ties to Schumer’s Senate Majority Pac, channeled $57.4 million into super PACs that helped Democrats regain the majority in the upper chamber.

The group received $76 million in anonymous donations from mid-2018 to mid-2019, the same year it passed tens of millions of dollars to other left-wing nonprofit groups devoted to funding “voter engagement” efforts.

The Senate Majority PAC sent its largest donation — $14.8 million — to America Votes, a group that Georgia election officials investigated for allegations it sent ballot applications to non-residents.

A spokesperson for America Votes has denied any wrongdoing, arguing that it sent absentee ballot applications to registered voters across Georgia, using an official list from the secretary of state’s office along with postal address data.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a vocal proponent of ending dark-money groups, also did not respond to an RCP request for comment. The Rhode Island Democrat has repeatedly described the impact of these “shadowy” groups as a “rot on our American democracy.”

RELATED: ‘Squad’ Member Rep. Cori Bush Defends Prison Riot After Condemning Capitol Riot

Last fall Whitehouse testified during a House judiciary subcommittee hearing that conservative dark-money organizations unduly influenced the confirmation of conservative judges during Trump’s time in office.

But Whitehouse also has said he would accept campaign donations from dark-money groups and has delivered speeches to liberal groups that accept money from secret donors.

Last summer, the longtime senator trashed the judicial nominating process during Trump’s time in office as “rigged.”

He argued that Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh won confirmation because they were backed by a sophisticated dark-money advertising “scheme” funded by corporations and deep-pocketed GOP donors.

Whitehouse spokesman Rich Davidson told RCP at the time that the donor disclosure his boss is seeking should apply to all groups “regardless of ideological bent.”

Davidson made the comment the same day Whitehouse spoke about the evils of conservative dark-money groups at an event hosted by the American Constitution Society, a liberal dark-money group that doesn’t disclose many of its donors.

Over the last week, RCP reached out to numerous groups (or their political arms) that don’t disclose their donors, including Demand Justice and Planned Parenthood Action Fund.

Only one, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which Politico labeled a “dark-money behemoth” after it raised $137 million from anonymous donors in 2019, came forward to say it supports efforts to force it and other groups that amass these “shadowy” funds to disclose their donors. 

“We have lobbied in favor of reform to the current campaign finance system,” Amy Kurtz, the fund’s executive director, told RCP in an emailed statement. “But we remain equally committed to following the current laws to level the playing field for progressives.”

Kurtz referred to that statement when asked whether she supports passage of the disclosure mandates in HR 1 and S 1, considering the success that dark-money groups such as hers had this cycle in helping Biden win the White House and Democrats gain the Senate majority.

Syndicated with permission from RealClearWire.

Susan Crabtree is RealClearPolitics’ White House/national political correspondent.

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Lindsey Graham Rips Impeachment – ‘We’re Doing A Lot Of Damage To The Country Because People Hate Trump’

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) spoke out on Monday night to rip into Democrats for their impeachment effort against former President Donald Trump.

Graham Rips Democrats Over Impeachment

While appearing on “Hannity” on Fox News, Graham complained about having to participate in the impeachment trial at all.

“I got to listen to this crap,” Graham said. “So, I hope by Sunday or Monday, the trial will be over. Here’s what I can tell you — if the House managers want to call one witness, the defense is going to call all the people you named and then some.”

“To my colleagues tomorrow, there are a hundred of us, what we do today is going to make history of the time America exists,” he added. “What Democrats have done is basically declared war on the presidency itself. The impeachment in House took place without a hearing, without one witness being called, and without a lawyer for the president of the United States.”

“You can’t get a traffic ticket based on the producers they used to impeach President Trump,” Graham continued. “And we’re also impeaching a man who’s out of office. When you combine a snap impeachment with an impeachment of a president who’s out of office, you’re going to destroy the presidency itself.”

“I know you hate Trump but please, pull back before we set in motion this destruction of the presidency by never-ending impeachments based on lack of due process and political retribution as the motive,” he said.

Related: Lindsey Graham Teaming With Dick Durbin To Introduce Legislation That Could Grant Citizenship To DREAMers

Graham Doubles Down

Not stopping there, Graham went on to argue that in impeaching a former president, the Democrat-controlled Congress was creating a new precedent.

“I think you’ll see statements by politicians that are more insightful than what President Trump said,” he predicted. “But when the Founders created impeachment for the president, it was different than for judges and anybody else. It requires that the chief justice of the United States to preside over presidential impeachments. Why? Because you don’t want a juror preceding over the impeachment of a presidential officeholder.”

“So the idea that the president is treated differently under the Constitution makes perfect sense,” Graham said. “They never envisioned going after the president once he’s out of office because the purpose for impeachment is to remove the person, not bar them from running in the future.”

“So, the whole point of impeachment is lost when the person is no longer in office,” Graham continued. “They didn’t go after Nixon when he resigned for a reason. So to my colleagues here, you’re about to set in motion a historical precedent that will put at risk every future president.”

“You could be impeached in the future based on hatred, 50 hours no witness, no hearing, no lawyer,” he concluded. “You can be impeached after you leave office. George Washington, under this theory, can be impeached for owning slaves. We’re doing a lot of damage to the country because people hate Trump. Knock it off.”

Related: Lindsey Graham Agrees With Obama That AOC Should Be Given Bigger Role In Democratic Party

This piece was written by James Samson on February 9, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

Read more at LifeZette:
Maxine Waters Confronted By MSNBC About Encouraging Violence Against Republicans
Bill Maher Claims Christianity Is To Blame For Capitol Riot
Liz Cheney Says There’s Major Criminal Probe Into Whether Trump Made ‘Premeditated Effort To Promote Violence’

The post Lindsey Graham Rips Impeachment – ‘We’re Doing A Lot Of Damage To The Country Because People Hate Trump’ appeared first on The Political Insider.

Jim Jordan Claims Democrats Are ‘Scared’ Of Trump

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) penned an op-ed for Fox News on Tuesday that accused Democrats of having an “obsession” with impeaching Donald Trump because “they’re scared of him.”

Jordan Attacks Democrats 

Jordan wrote in the op-ed that Democrats are hoping that this impeachment trial will lead to so much disdain for Trump that he will never run for office again.

“It’s been almost a month since he left office, but Democrats still can’t let go of President Donald Trump,” Jordan wrote. “That’s why, as our country faces many urgent challenges, the Senate will set aside its real work this week and instead focus on yet another political impeachment charade.”

Jordan added that while the Capitol riots should not have happened last month, they were not a concern for Democrats because while Republicans have condemned violence in the past, “Democrats have not, and now they are casting political blame for what happened at the Capitol.”

Related: Jim Jordan Calls Out Dems’ ‘Double Standards’ – They ‘Objected To More States In 2017 Than Republicans Did Last Week’

“President Trump did not incite the violence of Jan. 6,” Jordan said. “News reports suggest the FBI knew in advance that violence would occur. The U.S. Capitol Police also reportedly understood that there was a ‘strong potential for violence’ that day.”

“Pipe bombs had been placed before President Trump’s speech,” he continued. “So how can Democrats accuse President Trump of inciting violence when the violent acts had been planned in advance?”

Jordan Blasts House For Impeaching Trump

Jordan lamented the fact that in the House, there was no due process for Trump, “there was no process whatsoever.” He added that the Senate is now preparing to conduct an unconstitutional “impeachment trial” of a man no longer president.

“Last week, Democrats threatened President Trump that if he declined to testify during the Democrats’ impeachment charade, they would use it as proof of his guilt,” he wrote. “That may be how trials work in socialist countries. But that’s not how it works in America.”

“Democrats are going to these lengths because they are obsessed with canceling President Trump,” Jordan continued. “They’re scared of him. They know he works [for] the American people, and not the Washington Swamp. Unlike most politicians, President Trump did what he said he’d do. Hopefully, one day, he’ll get to do it again.”

Read Next: Rep. Jim Jordan Says Trump Should Not Concede: ‘Instinctively Everyone Knows’ The Election Is Flawed

This piece was written by James Samson on February 9, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

Read more at LifeZette:
Maxine Waters Confronted By MSNBC About Encouraging Violence Against Republicans
Bill Maher Claims Christianity Is To Blame For Capitol Riot
Liz Cheney Says There’s Major Criminal Probe Into Whether Trump Made ‘Premeditated Effort To Promote Violence’

The post Jim Jordan Claims Democrats Are ‘Scared’ Of Trump appeared first on The Political Insider.

PBS’ Yamiche Alcindor Defends Democrat Double Standard On Impeachment – ‘Wasn’t Storming Of The Capitol’ After Maxine Waters’ Speech

PBS correspondent and MSNBC political contributor Yamiche Alcindor spoke out on Tuesday to defend the Democratic Party’s double standard when it comes to the impeachment effort against Donald Trump.

Alcindor Defends Democrats

After it was reported that Trump’s legal team is planning to argue that Democrats incited riots with their speeches, Alcindor said that this argument is not valid because speeches by leftists like Maxine Waters and Kamala Harris did not result in deadly riots.

“I’m really watching to see how much this becomes a personal reliving of what happened on January 6,” Alcindor said. “You’re hearing from senior Democratic aides that they want this to feel like a violent crime trial. They want people to be brought into what happened at the Capitol.”

“So that’s why they’re saying this is going to be this new evidence. I suspect some of that will probably be possibly videos that we haven’t seen before, talking to aides on Capitol Hill, they’re really feeling as though they need to remind people exactly what happened.”

Related: PBS Reporter Yamiche Alcindor Slams Paralyzed GOP Candidate Madison Cawthorn After His RNC Speech

Alcindor On Trump Team

“The Trump team, as you reported, also is going to be bringing out this video, trying to say, ‘Hear what Democrats said. Here is why they are just like President Trump,'” she added. ”

“But I think the thing that’s going to be so obvious is going to be that there wasn’t a storming of the Capitol after Maxine Waters or Senator Harris — then-Senator Harris had fiery speeches,” Alcindor said. “So I think that’s all the things that we should be watching, how they juxtapose this at the scene of where this happened.”

Alcindor has long been an outspoken critic of former President Trump, and she went at it with him regularly at various points in his presidency. On Tuesday, she took to Twitter to celebrate the start of Trump’s Senate impeachment trial.

“And we’re off, House impeachment managers and making the walk to the Senate chamber,” she wrote. “Trump Impeachment 2.0 is upon us.”

Related: PBS Reporter Tangles With Trump – Gets Backlash

This piece was written by James Samson on February 9, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

Read more at LifeZette:
Maxine Waters Confronted By MSNBC About Encouraging Violence Against Republicans
Bill Maher Claims Christianity Is To Blame For Capitol Riot
Liz Cheney Says There’s Major Criminal Probe Into Whether Trump Made ‘Premeditated Effort To Promote Violence’

The post PBS’ Yamiche Alcindor Defends Democrat Double Standard On Impeachment – ‘Wasn’t Storming Of The Capitol’ After Maxine Waters’ Speech appeared first on The Political Insider.

Report: Democrats Have A Back-Up Plan That Might Still Bar Trump From Running Again If Impeachment Fails

Congressional Democrats are reportedly considering a back-up plan – a censure resolution against Donald Trump should this week’s impeachment trial result in acquittal for the former President.

The resolution, according to McClatchy, would bar Trump “from holding future office over his role in the U.S. Capitol riot.”

The Senate impeachment trial began on Tuesday with opening statements and debate between House impeachment managers and the former President’s defense lawyers.

Trump’s lawyers argue that the House impeachment charge is unconstitutional and are calling on the Senate to acquit the former President.

His acquittal seems all but assured with 45 Republican Senators having already voted on a point of order that the trial is unconstitutional.

RELATED: Trump Lawyer’s Demand Senate Impeachment Trial Be Dismissed, Top Dem Admits ‘Not Crazy To Argue’ It’s Unconstitutional

Democrats Have Back-Up Impeachment Plan – Censure Trump

The Democrat attempt to censure Donald Trump – who is now a private citizen – would invoke Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.

It is a rarely cited Civil War-era provision that bars people from holding office if they “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion” or “given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”

Pushing forward with the plan seems to be a foregone conclusion, as McClatchy notes “the debate among members of Congress is now whether to push for the resolution early this week — as the impeachment trial is first starting — or towards the end.”

Some Democrat lawmakers are hoping the trial itself will “build public support and political momentum” for the censure resolution.

“The reception has been lukewarm so far from Democrats, who would prefer to see the former president convicted in the impeachment trial, and from Republicans, who fear political consequences in barring Trump from office,” McClatchy observes.

Senator Tim Kaine adds, “Right now there’s not enough support on either side.”

If the Senate acquits Trump, however, bitter Democrats could conceivably coalesce behind such a censure resolution and they wouldn’t need any help from the Republicans.

A resolution to censure Trump would require a simple majority vote to pass in the House and Senate.

RELATED: Squad’s Ayanna Pressley: Capitol Riots Gave Me ‘Deep And Ancestral’ Terror From ‘White Supremacist Mob’

It Could Backfire

The report indicates that Democrats may be playing with fire if they plan to censure Trump following the Senate impeachment trial.

“Some Democratic lawyers warn the strategy could backfire if taken to court and provide Trump with a rallying cry to run again for president in 2024,” it reads.

Legal scholar Jonathan Turley has argued that censuring Trump is a “dangerous” tactic for the nation.

Barring the former President from running again in the future based on a rarely cited provision of the 14th Amendment, without a trial and supermajority vote could open up the floodgates for party’s in power to keep their political opponents out of office.

“The party in control could bar dozens of its opponents from running for federal office,” Turley explains. “Some Democrats are now demanding such action against Republicans who challenged the election of Joe Biden.”

Indeed, how often have we heard Democrats demand Senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz be expelled from Congress?

“This is common in authoritarian countries such as Iran, where leaders often bar their opponents from office,” Turley adds.

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