Tamara Keith and Amy Walter on Trump’s impeachment and his enduring influence

NPR's Tamara Keith and Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report join Judy Woodruff to discuss the latest political news, including how former President Trump's second impeachment trial will be different from the first, how partisanship plays in to the trial, Trump's continued influence on the Republican Party and President Biden's relief plan.

Biden focuses on stimulus plan as Dems gear up for Trump’s Senate trial

Former President Trump's Senate impeachment trial begins on Tuesday, with Democrats, who have 50 seats in addition to VP Harris's vote, gearing up to convict him of inciting the Capitol insurrection. Meanwhile, President Biden is focusing on his $1.9 trillion pandemic stimulus package. Special Correspondent Jeff Greenfield joins Hari Sreenivasan to discuss.

Republicans ‘big’ tinfoil tent transformation is the gift that will keep on giving to Democrats

"I've been freed," bragged QAnon Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Friday, the day after House Democrats forced a vote to strip the reality-adjacent, pugnacious provocateur of her committee assignments because her GOP counterparts refused to do so.

Greene—whose momentary show of near-contrition Thursday melted away by Friday—blasted Democrats as "morons" for elevating her platform, or giving her "free time," as she put it in a tweet. "Oh this is going to be fun!" Greene declared—an apparent threat, now that the shackles of decency are off and she's done pretending she's anything other than a menace to society, not to mention the republic itself.

But Greene isn't the only one who has been freed. After nearly two months of witnessing Republicans spit in the face of democracy, Democrats watched the GOP's depravity sink to a new low this week. Not only are Republicans the party of sedition, by circling the wagons around Greene they have refashioned their so-called "big tent" to include everyone from traditional fiscal conservatives to loathsome Nazis and white supremacists, fanatical militia members and extremists, and wackadoodle conspiracy theorists. In short, the GOP is now a big tinfoil tent—an explosive experiment that could detonate at any moment. 

And guess what—many of those traditional fiscal conservatives are fleeing the tent as fast as humanly possible. In fact, ever since the November election, tens of thousands of conservative voters across the country have been defecting from the Republican Party, a trend that spiked in the immediate aftermath of Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. In Colorado, for instance, the GOP lost about a half a percent of its registered voters in the single week following the riot, according to NPR. Similar trends are taking place in multiple states, including some that will be central to the 2022 battle for control of the Senate, such as Arizona, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania—where nearly 10,000 Keystone State voters dropped out of the Republican Party in the first 25 days of the year, according to The Hill.

The House Democratic campaign arm is already on it, moving aggressively to rebrand House Republicans as the Q-caucus. As Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney of New York, the new chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told POLITICO, Republicans "can do QAnon, or they can do college-educated voters. They cannot do both."

But as Republicans transform into a tinfoil tent community, Democrats are experiencing an equal and opposite reaction of sorts—an unrestrained clarity of vision and purpose. After all, why bother listening to a party so toxic it just rallied around someone calling for executions of your own members? Not only did House Democrats move without equivocation to strip Greene of her power, House impeachment managers put Donald Trump on the spot by inviting him to testify under oath for his impeachment trial. Trump, ever the coward, quickly declined, but that conversation may not be over, since the Senate could potentially subpoena him. 

And as long as we're on the subject of Trump, President Joe Biden told CBS News he thinks Trump should be stripped of his intelligence briefings, citing his “erratic” behavior. "What value is giving him an intelligence briefing?" Biden said. "What impact does he have at all, other than the fact he might slip and say something?"

Democrats also greased the legislative skids this week for passage of President Biden's American Rescue Plan by a simple majority vote in the Senate, sidelining the necessity of winning GOP votes. Democrats might still lamentably trim back who is eligible for the $1,400 direct payments, but overall, this is the relief package Biden and Democrats promised on the campaign trail. And despite an incessant drumbeat of questions from reporters about the quaint notion of bipartisanship, Biden hasn't blinked.

"If I have to choose between getting help right now to Americans," Biden said Friday, "and getting bogged down in a lengthy negotiation or compromising on a bill that's up to the crisis, that's an easy choice. I'm going to help the American people who are hurting now." Biden also invoked the Defense Production Act and mobilized more than 1,000 active duty troops to help increase the rate of vaccinations and make 61 million more coronavirus tests available by summer. 

Overall, Biden's White House and Congressional Democrats have taken a muscular no-nonsense approach to getting the nation back on its feet and providing quick relief to the Americans who need it most.

In some ways, progressives owe a debt of gratitude to Republican leaders like Mitch McConnell, who burned the bridge of good will beyond recognition in the last Democratic administration, and Kevin McCarthy, who has turned the GOP into a haven for the dangerous and unmoored. Democrats will spend the next several weeks making that transformation abundantly clear to the American people during a vivid recreation of the deadly Capitol riot that was inspired by Trump and underwritten by his GOP enablers. 

And just as soon as Trump’s Senate impeachment trial concludes, Democrats will likely be in position to punctuate the differences between the two parties by delivering a desperately needed relief bill to the American people.

It's a promising start—a foundation from which to build. Success begets success. But the stickier issues are yet to come. Even Biden admitted to CBS that he doesn't think his $15 minimum wage proposal will "survive" in the rescue package given the Senate rules on reconciliation. At some point, the rubber is going to have to meet the road on eliminating the filibuster so Democrats can continue delivering results at a time when Americans need their government to go to bat for them. But building momentum is at least a good place for Democrats to start. 

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

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich spoke out on Friday to predict that Democrats will throw away their control of Congress with a “radical” budget agenda.

He said this on Fox News after they passed the $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus package.

Gingrich Comments On Democrats

Gingrich said that Democrats “have clearly decided” that they will “go for broke on a radical agenda,” adding that this “almost certainly guarantees” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) will take over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) role.

“[L]et me start and point out this is the third time they’ve done this,” Gingrich said. “Bill Clinton passed a huge tax increase with no Republicans, and in 1994, they lost 54 seats in the House. Pelosi and others rammed through bills with no Republicans, and in 2010, they lost 63 seats in the House.”

“What the Democrats have now clearly decided is that they are going to go for broke on a radical agenda,” he added.

“They’re going to do everything they can without any Republicans, and that means that they are going to own everything in the election of 2022, and [that] almost certainly guarantees that Kevin McCarthy is the next Speaker and that the Democrats will, in fact once again for the third time have thrown away control of the Congress,” Gingrich said.

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

Gingrich Says Pelosi Is ‘Hysterical’

Later in this interview, Gingrich said that Pelosi is “hysterical” because she is losing a grip on her speakership.

“That five-vote margin is going to break down sometime this spring as members start to say, ‘Hey, I can’t go back home if I keep voting like a radical.’ And at that point, McCarthy will be the functional leader of the House,” he claimed.

This comes weeks after Gingrich blasted Pelosi as the “most destructive Speaker in history.”

“First off, she keeps violating the Constitution,” Gingrich said of Pelosi. “The latest impeachment is just a simple example.”

“She uses her power ruthlessly and she has really pushed through the most radical positions ever taken by an American Speaker, including abolishing mother and father and uncle and aunt and son and daughter as words, literally trying to strip out any gender reference from the House of Representatives,” he added. “I think she’s very dangerous.”

Read Next: Newt Gingrich Eviscerates Pelosi – ‘Most Destructive Speaker In History’

This piece was written by James Samson on February 6, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

Read more at LifeZette:
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Says It’s Trump’s Fault After Teachers Union Stops Schools From Reopening
Trump Resigns From SAG-AFTRA With Epic Letter Blasting Its ‘Dismal Record As A Union’
Matt Gaetz Reveals How Democrats Made Marjorie Taylor Greene Possibly ‘Most Powerful’ Republican In Congress

The post Newt Gingrich Predicts Democrats Will Throw Away Congress ‘Once Again’ With ‘Radical’ Budget Agenda appeared first on The Political Insider.

Rep. Cori Bush recounts her determination to go down fighting if the Capitol mob had reached her

Republicans want to sweep the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol under the rug. They want us to forget how violent, how brutal, how hateful it was, and most of all how seriously it threatened our democracy. Republicans want us to forget this even though in some cases their own lives were at risk, too. Because they’ve decided it’s politically expedient to stand by their man and defend Donald Trump against impeachment for having incited an insurrection.

House Democrats, led by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, are not interested in letting this be swept under the rug. One of their most powerful tools is a simple one: They’re telling their stories. Following AOC’s powerful Instagram Live recounting of her experience on Jan. 6, a group of Democrats rose Thursday night to speak. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee compared fleeing the Capitol on Jan. 6 to fleeing it on 9/11, describing the smoke from the Pentagon in one case and the sounds of shooting in the other.

“We must get to the bottom of this. We cannot let white supremacy … dominate the goodness of what this democracy and this Constitution stands for,” she said. “I’m here on the floor to say that we shall not be denied. We are never going to give up our love for democracy, nor its vitality, nor are we going to let this country be dominated by the insurrectionists who came to this place to do nothing but act in a bloodthirsty manner. We are not afraid of you.”

Rep. Dean Phillips—an average-looking white guy from Minnesota—recounted how the Capitol attack made him understand white privilege in a new way. “Recognizing that we were sitting ducks in this room as the chamber was about to be breached, I screamed to my colleagues to follow me. To follow me across the aisle to the Republican side of the chamber, so that we could blend in—so that we could blend in,” he said. “For I felt that the insurrectionists who were trying to break down the doors right here would spare us if they simply mistook us for Republicans.

”But within moments I recognized that blending in was not an option available to my colleagues of color. So I’m here tonight to say to my brothers and sisters in Congress and all around our country. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. For I had never understood—really understood—what privilege really means. It took a violent mob of insurrectionists and a lightning bolt moment in this very room. But now I know. Believe me, I really know.”

Phillips’ emotional apology adds context to the testimony from some of the colleagues he was referring to—people who could not hope to blend in with House Republicans. He described his fear that day, but some of his colleagues have lived with fear like that and experienced the insurrection as too close to what they already knew.

Rep. Cori Bush showed how she became a movement leader with a searing speech tying the experience of being in the Capitol on that day to her experience of protest, saying, “People were calling this a protest. Let me say this: That was not a protest. I’ve been to hundreds of protests in my life. I’ve co-organized, co-led, led, and organized protests.” Sitting in her office, with her staff, watching the attack on the Capitol on television, Bush vowed “If they touch these doors, if they hit these doors the way they hit that door and come anywhere near my staff—and I’m just going to be real honest about it, my thought process was, we bangin’ till the end. I’m not letting them take out my people and you’re not taking me out. We’ve come too far.”

Where Bush emphasized her readiness in that moment to go down fighting—a measure of the level of threat she felt, but also a truly stirring call—Rep. Rashida Tlaib described herself as “paralyzed” by the threats she has received. Sobbing almost from the beginning, she recounted getting her first death threat on the first day of orientation after her election to Congress. “I didn’t even get sworn in yet and someone wanted me dead for just existing,” she said. “More came later, uglier, more violent.” One even mentioned her son by name. Tlaib wasn’t in the Capitol on Jan. 6, but with years of death threats in her experience, the sight traumatized her again.

These are amazing moments and they are profound witness to the horror of Jan. 6—the horror of what Donald Trump spent years laying the groundwork for, months setting the stage for as he tried to overturn the election results, and a morning inciting live and in person. Trump of course had a solid bedrock of U.S. racism to build on, but this specific event was something he really worked for and owns. Republicans want to wish it away to protect their own. That must not happen.

Matt Gaetz Reveals How Democrats Made Marjorie Taylor Greene Possibly ‘Most Powerful’ Republican In Congress

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) went on Fox News on Friday to reveal how he feels that Democrats’ efforts to take down Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) have backfired on them.

Gaetz Issues Warning About Greene

After Democrats successfully ousted Greene from her committees, Gaetz warned that they had made her “possibly one of the most powerful Republicans in Congress.” Not stopping there, he said that they had definitely made her “the most powerful freshman in Congress.”

“Bravo, Marjorie Taylor Greene,” Gaetz said in response to her last press conference. “That was so good I almost had to smoke a cigarette afterward. She was policy-focused; she was graceful. I think she pointed out the hypocrisy in the media.”

“Most importantly … we saw that yesterday Democrats made Marjorie Taylor Greene certainly the most powerful freshman in Congress and possibly one of the most powerful Republicans in Congress,” he added.

Related: Rashida Tlaib: Any Republicans Who Support Marjorie Taylor Greene Support White Supremacy

Gaetz Doubles Down

“What other freshman could command a press conference like that and get it carried live with the opportunity to share the views and values that emanate from their district?” Gaetz questioned. 

“Marjorie is off the proverbial leash right now,” Gaetz concluded. “I think she’s going to be a major communicator.”

“And if she shows the grace and the focus and the attention to policies that matter to everyday Americans like she did in that press conference, she is going to be a very successful congresswoman,” he said.

Related: Marjorie Taylor Greene Blasts ‘Hate America Democrats’ As Vote To Remove Her From Committees Is Confirmed

Greene Speaks Out

Greene took to Twitter on Friday morning to say, “I woke up early this morning literally laughing thinking about what a bunch of morons the Democrats (+11) are for giving some one like me free time.”

“In this Democrat tyrannical government, Conservative Republicans have no say on committees anyway,” she added. “Oh this is going to be fun!”

During her press conference, Greene claimed that Democrats have “stripped my district of their voice” by removing her from the committees, according to the BBC. She also blasted the Democratic-run government as “tyrannically controlled” and denounced the upcoming Senate impeachment trial of Donald Trump.

Greene went on to go after the media for “addicting people to hate”.

This piece was written by James Samson on February 5, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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The post Matt Gaetz Reveals How Democrats Made Marjorie Taylor Greene Possibly ‘Most Powerful’ Republican In Congress appeared first on The Political Insider.

House Republicans became the Party of Q this week. Democrats won’t let voters forget it in 2022

The word "nightmare" is trending in Republican circles lately. Thursday Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina characterized the idea of Donald Trump testifying at his impeachment trial as "a nightmare for the country." Or as a Politico headline put it, "Trump's allies fear the impeachment trial could be a PR nightmare"—which is what Graham really meant.  

Democrats agree, and the House Democratic campaign arm is moving quickly to bring that nightmare home to the House GOP, which officially declared itself the QAnon caucus this week when 199 of its 211 members voted against stripping its chief Q adherent, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, of her committee assignments. 

In its opening salvo in the 2022 battle for control of the House, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee released a campaign ad indicting House Republicans for standing "with Q not you." The ad places the conspiracy cult at the center of the deadly Jan. 6 riot, saying that QAnon "with Donald Trump, incited a mob that attacked the Capitol and murdered a cop."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi previewed the strategy this week when she referred to GOP Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy as "Qevin McCarthy, Q-CA" in a tweet. McCarthy helpfully lived up to the moniker by refusing to remove Greene from her committee assignments and forcing his caucus to go on record in support of someone who not only espouses QAnon, but has also endorsed the execution of Pelosi and other Democrats and has verbally assaulted survivors of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. And frankly, that's just a small taste of Greene's abhorrent quackery.

House Democrats are betting that won't play well in the very districts that will likely decide control of the House for the second half of President Joe Biden's term.

"If Kevin McCarthy wants to take his party to ‘crazy town’ and follow these dangerous ideas, he shouldn't expect to do well in the next election,” Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney of New York, the new chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told Politico. "They can do QAnon, or they can do college-educated voters. They cannot do both."

According to Politico, the DCCC's $500,000 TV and digital ad campaign will run in the districts of seven vulnerable Republicans: Reps. Mike Garcia, Young Kim and Michelle Steel of California; Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida; Don Bacon of Nebraska; Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania; and Beth Van Duyne of Texas.

Democrats' early decision to nationalize the race is a notable departure from their strategy in 2018, when they deployed a hyper-localized message around health care that ultimately netted them an historic 41 seats. Of course, the backdrop to that strategy was the GOP's repeated efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which would have stripped millions of Americans of their coverage.

The backdrop to this decision were the horrific events of Jan. 6, an insurrection at the Capitol that Americans couldn’t have even imagined before they watched in horror as it played out in real time on screens across the country. A Yahoo News/YouGuv survey released this week found that 81% of Americans said the attack wasn't justified. And more than 9 in 10 Americans expressed revulsion about the attack, saying it made them feel “angry,” “ashamed” or “fearful.” 

Democrats will now have several weeks worth of a Senate trial to remind people of that revulsion and how the GOP underwrote that deadly attack before, during, and after it took place through its unyielding support of Trump's lies and its embrace of extremist groups like QAnon.

Democrats’ bet is that after they deliver results on COVID-19 relief, they will be able to head into 2022 saying that Democrats stood with the American people while Republicans stood with QAnon.

Marjorie Taylor Greene Calls Out Media As Dems Prepare To Kick Her Off Congressional Committees

Embattled pro-Trump Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene slammed the media Thursday prior to a vote by the House on whether or not to strip her of her committee assignments.

Greene has come under fire for statements she made prior to being elected to Congress, many of which were deemed by Democrats and the media as racist and anti-Semetic. 

In her speech, Greene was quick to call out the media and turn the tables on her accusers, saying, “Will we allow the media, that is just as guilty as QAnon, of presenting truth and lies to divide us?”

She began her speech saying that she had not really had a chance to get to know most of her colleagues, and they may have a warped view of her due to extensive media narratives: “You only know me by how Media Matters, CNN, MSNC, and the rest of the mainstream media is portraying me.”

“Any source of information that is a mix of truth and lies is dangerous,” Greene went on to say, “Big media companies can take tiny bits of what we say, and portray us as someone we are not.”

She spoke of wanting to work with all members of Congress, but stated, “it should always be America first, there is nothing wrong with that.”   

Greene also expressed regret over some of her past comments in support of QAnon.

“I was allowed to believe things that weren’t true and I would ask questions about them and talk about them, and that is absolutely what I regret.”

Currently, Rep. Greene sits on the Education and Labor and Budget committees.

Watch her entire speech below.

RELATED: Democrats Demand Trump Testify At Senate Impeachment Trial

Greene Had Previously Apologized To Her Colleagues

Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has taken heat recently for Greene’s comments, and Democrats have demanded some sort of reprimand of Greene by McCarthy.

Leader McCarthy and the freshman member of Congress held a 90 minute meeting on Wednesday, but little is known about what was discussed.

Democrats had stated that if McCarthy was unwilling to take action regarding Greene, that they would consider voting to strip her of her committee assignments.

RELATED: Marjorie Taylor Greene Blasts ‘Hate America’ Democrats’ As Vote To Remove Her From Committees Is Confirmed

Several GOP members rose to her defense at the meeting, such as House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Biggs (R-AZ).

Still, Greene wasn’t believed with what she viewed as a lack of support from her own party’s leadership.

RELATED: Marjorie Taylor Greene Fires Back After Mitch McConnell Calls Her ‘Cancer’ To The GOP

Greene Actually Gets Help From Democrats

Marjorie Taylor Greene may get stripped of her committee assignments, but she can safely say that she has gotten help from her Democrat colleagues.

Because of the Democrats’ threatened punishment, Greene has gotten a steep boost in fundraising.

As of Wednesday, Greene had raised $175,000. In a tweet, she thanked all who had donated. And in yet what may be described as yet another controversial comment, Greene stated that, “They are attacking me because I am one of you. We will not back down. We will never give up!”

Watch Greene’s entire speech here: 

The post Marjorie Taylor Greene Calls Out Media As Dems Prepare To Kick Her Off Congressional Committees appeared first on The Political Insider.

Democrats Demand Trump Testify At Senate Impeachment Trial

House impeachment managers sent a letter to Donald Trump strongly suggesting the former president testify at the Senate impeachment trial.

The trial, slated to begin on Tuesday of next week, involves a charge from the House that Trump incited a mob of supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6th.

A formal response from Trump’s lawyers “denied” that he “ever engaged in a violation of his oath of office,” and instead he, “at all times acted to the best of his ability to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin (D-MD) essentially defied Trump to prove his innocence in his own words.

“In light of your disputing these factual allegations, I write to invite you to provide testimony under oath, either before or during the Senate impeachment trial, concerning your conduct on January 6, 2021,” Raskin wrote.

The Democrat then argued that not testifying would be used against him.

“If you decline this invitation, we reserve any and all rights, including the right to establish at trial that your refusal to testify supports a strong adverse inference regarding your actions (and inaction) on January 6, 2021,” added Raskin.

RELATED: Trump’s Lawyers Argue Impeachment Article Is Violation Of The Constitution

Lindsey Graham – Not Likely Trump Will Testify at Impeachment Trial

Forbes reporter Andrew Solender tweeted a response from Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) in which he dismissed Raskin’s demand as little more than a “political ploy.”

“I don’t think that would be in anybody’s interest,” Graham said according to Solender, adding that it would be a “nightmare for the country.”

“This is just a political showboat move. They didn’t call him in the House,” Graham pointed out.

Raskin’s letter attempts to argue that there is precedent for Presidents testifying at their impeachment trial.

“Presidents Gerald Ford and Bill Clinton both provided testimony while in office—and the Supreme Court held just last year that you were not immune from legal process while serving as President—so there is no doubt that you can testify in these proceedings,” he said.

Raskin is seemingly unaware that Trump is no longer the President.

Solender reports that Graham spoke to the former President a couple of days ago and he’s in “pretty good spirits, trying to get adjusted to his new life.”

RELATED: Maxine Waters Wants Trump Charged With ‘Premeditated Murder’

A Political Ploy

Raskin’s letter is rich, not only with political ploys but with irony. Tremendously thick irony, at that.

The Maryland Democrat is “guilty” of the very same thing he is tasked with proving is a high crime and misdemeanor in Trump’s impeachment trial.

Raskin objected to the certification of Florida’s electoral votes in 2017. In fact, House Democrats tried objecting to the certification of electoral votes for Donald Trump that year on 11 separate occasions.

One could argue, using the Democrat party’s own standard today, that the constant insistence that Trump didn’t really win the election in 2016 led to an incitement of violence on inauguration day.

House managers do not have independent authority to subpoena Trump so they must invite him to make his case.

The Senate, according to the New York Post, could subpoena him with a simple majority.

The post Democrats Demand Trump Testify At Senate Impeachment Trial appeared first on The Political Insider.

GOP a ‘grotesque caricature’ of what it was before, says former Sen. John Danforth

John Danforth, a former Republican senator, garnered attention last month when he denounced Sen. Josh Hawley's role in the Capitol attacks and expressed regret over his previous support for the Missouri lawmaker. He joins Judy Woodruff to discuss his views on the modern-day Republican Party, former President Trump's impeachment, and the impact of questioning the legitimacy of the election.