Category: DonaldTrump

Jan. 6 was far from the first insurrection Trump supported, and it’s unclear if it was the last

Posted on by Mark Sumner

Right now—and this is a real thing—Donald Trump has lost the Secretaries of Transportation, Health and Human Services, Education, the chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, and whatever the heck role Mick Mulvaney held And really, that’s just the tip of the milky white iceberg of milky white people who made the tough moral decision that 3.95 years of inciting violence, instilling racism, and driving divisiveness was simply all they could take. I mean, 3.94 years? Sure. But they always expected that Trump would become presidential before he stopped being that thing. Everyone has their limits, and for a lot of Trump’s associates, those limits seem to be symbolically stepping back at the very last possible second out of a powerful delusion that this will somehow purify them in time for their next six-, seven-, or eight-figure position.

Then, as happens in serious democracies, this run of camels who finally discovered their last straw, led to Trump spending a good part of his week talking over strategy with the MyPillow Guy. Mr. Pillow came to the White House clutching a sheaf of papers that cleverly pointed out Trump could use the insurrection he incited to declare that people were being insurrectiony. Then he could invoke the Insurrection Act. Then, once Trump had installed himself as president for life and turned the CIA and FBI into the KGB and Stasi, respectively, Trump could just declare martial law and shoot them. Really. That was the plan. Plus you get 80% off a full body pillow using the code #CrossTheRubicon.

Admittedly, there’s no truth behind the discount code. I think. But since the pillows are nothing but cloth bags of shredded foam that probably cost Mike Lindell a nickel apiece to manufacture, feel free to give it a try.

In any case, the major point here isn’t that the pillows are demonstrably smarter and more patriotic than the guy who peddles them. It’s that Trump is so devoid of anything that looks like a serious adviser, he really did spend hours in the White House going over a plan to take America along the same path blazed by Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, and Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, and, of course, Adolf. At the direction of the MyPillow Guy.

All of this is extraordinarily sad. But not for Donald Trump. It’s sad for everyone who isn’t Trump.

As The New York Times reports, everything that has happened with Trump, was exactly what had to happen with Trump.

The siege of the Capitol wasn’t a departure for Trump, it was an apotheosis. For years, he’s been telling us he wouldn’t accept an election loss. For years, he’s been urging his followers to violence, refusing to condemn their violence, and insinuating that even greater violence was on the way. As he told Breitbart in 2019, in one of his characteristic threats, “I have the tough people, but they don’t play it tough — until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad.”

And what do you know, Trump was right. It was very bad.

The Times also points out that Trump didn’t start cheering on mobs overrunning capitols on Jan. 6. That was really more of an endpoint. Trump started off by cheering on crowds who tore through multiple state capitols over social distancing guidelines, or rumors that someone might restrict 100-shot magazines for their AR-15s, or threats to statues dedicated to racist mass-murderers and traitors. In every case, Trump praised the militias, the white supremacists, and the hoarse-throated mob. 

What happened in D. C. on Jan. 6 was just a national version of what happened in Wisconsin, in Colorado, and in Kentucky, and in a dozen other states. Trump not only encouraged these events, he even refused to say there was anything wrong with a plot to kidnap and publicly execute Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Speaking of which, here’s Trump from the rally that came right before his people swarmed up the Capitol steps, smashed through doors and windows, and went prowling the halls of Congress with handcuffs. “We’ve got to get rid of the weak congresspeople,” said Trump, “the ones that aren’t any good, the Liz Cheneys of the world, we got to get rid of them … Because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong.”

Gee. Where did people get the idea that he wanted them to kidnap, try, and execute members of Congress? Right from Trump. (Bonus: Note why Liz Cheney was so willing to sign on to impeachment).

What happened on Jan. 6 was shocking, but it should not have been surprising to anyone. Trump has been calling for this moment since he came down that gold elevator. He’s not just overlooked violence, but encouraged it. He’s made it clear, at every speech and every rally, that beating people up is okay. That violence is good. That executions are fine. In fact, he has complained that there was not enough violence and brutality to suit him in this wimpy modern world. He didn’t just license his followers to smash the police in the face with “thin blue line” flags, he made it inevitable.

Trump is who he has always been. His followers are doing as he has always wanted. None of this was a secret. For the last four years, all of the Republican Party and half of the media has pretended they could not see that Trump was simply a fascist, doing what fascists always do—offering violence and calling it order. 

Don’t expect them to start admitting it now.

Federalist Society quiet on bigwig member who spoke at insurrection, told Pence to overturn election

Posted on by Joan McCarter

More than 200 judges have been embedded in the federal judiciary by outgoing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump. The huge majority of those judges come from the Federalist Society, the right-wing dark money association that has been working for years to erode civil rights, end abortion, oppose LGBTQ equality, stop gun safety laws, and fight regulations protecting the environment, health care, and worker safety—aka everything achieved in roughly half a century of progress. They are responsible for the current makeup of the Supreme Court and most of the Republican Senate. And they also have at least partial responsibility for the insurrection that happened at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

John Eastman, until this week the chairman of the Federalist Society's Federalism & Separation of Powers practice group, spoke at the pre-insurrection rally. "Anybody that is not willing to stand up and [vote to overturn the election] does not deserve to be in the office!" Eastman told the crowd. Standing next to Rudy Giuliani at the rally, he broke into a smile when Rudy incited the crowd with "Let's have trial by combat!"

Those linked tweets are from Slate's Mark Joseph Stern, who highlighted Eastman's role in pushing Trump's various plots to overturn the election: "As the president's actual attorneys backed away from his coup, Eastman rushed in to fill the void, attempting to bolster the scheme with incoherent legal theories," Stern writes. "When Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton urged the Supreme Court to overturn the election by nullifying millions of votes, it was Eastman who intervened on Trump's behalf to endorse Paxton's suit."

Worse, Eastman was in the Oval Office on Jan. 5 telling Trump—and Vice President Mike Pence—that Pence could legally toss out the real, certified electoral votes and throw the election to Trump. Because of his participation in the coup attempt, he's been tossed from the Chapman University School of Law, where he was a law professor and onetime dean. He's officially "retired"—at age 60, in the middle of the school year. But sure, retired. Eastman has been a visiting scholar at the University of Colorado Boulder, where calls for his dismissal have so far resulted in cancellation of two courses he was going to teach this spring.

As of now, the Federalist Society has not thrown out Eastman. Never mind that his name has been floated as one of Trump's impeachment lawyers, which would be kind of awkward. In what can only be considered an effort to save face—and its ability to someday again be able to shape the federal judiciary—one of the group's co-founders is calling Trump "a danger to the nation" who must be convicted by the Senate.

But the Federalist Society, which has supplied 85% of Trump's judges, has made no comment on Eastman, who is an insurrectionist. That's a problem for the organization. It's a much larger problem for the nation. Expanding the courts to dilute the influence of these judges is going to have to be a high priority for President-elect Joe Biden and the Democratic Senate.

He went viral for saving the Senate, but Army vet Eugene Goodman ‘was a hero long before’

Posted on by Aysha Qamar

The Black police officer who went viral for his bravery in distracting the angry Donald Trump mob that took over the Capitol is being rightfully called a hero, not just by Americans nationwide but representatives in Congress. Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman lured a group of rioters away from the Senate chamber’s entrance to protect members of Congress on Jan. 6.  As a result, Reps. Charlie Crist of Florida, Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri, and Nancy Mace of South Carolina introduced a bill Thursday to award Goodman the Congressional Gold Medal for “bravery and quick thinking during last week’s insurrection at the United States Capitol."

Since the horrific Capitol riots, many have criticized the lack of security in the building and Capitol Police leadership for its lack of preparation, resulting in the resignation of the Capitol Police’s chief. But amid all the criticisms for Capitol Police comes praise for Goodman and his quick thinking. The award several lawmakers hope to give Goodman is considered one of the highest civilian awards in the country.

"The United States Capitol was under attack by armed, violent extremists, and Officer Eugene Goodman was the only thing standing between the mob and the United States Senate," Crist said in a statement, according to Business Insider.

"I shudder to think what might have happened had it not been for Officer Goodman's fast thinking and commitment to his duty and his country," he continued. "While some will remember last Wednesday for the very worst in our country, the patriotism and heroics of Officer Eugene Goodman renew my faith and remind us all what truly makes the United States great."

The footage of Goodman’s selfless bravery went viral after being shared by HuffPost reporter Igor Bobic on Twitter. Daily Kos shared the footage and reported that the incident happened at 2:14 PM. The Senate was closed mere seconds later at 2:15 PM “Just now realizing how much of a close call it was in the Senate,” Bobic tweeted.

Here’s the scary moment when protesters initially got into the building from the first floor and made their way outside Senate chamber. pic.twitter.com/CfVIBsgywK

— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) January 6, 2021

This moment in ⁦@igorbobic⁩ stunning footage. In front of the officer, coming up the stairs, is a mass of rioters. The USCP officer glances to his left. Between those two chairs is the entrance to the senate floor. He lured them to his right, away from their targets. pic.twitter.com/knjQQ4GZ0d

— Kristin Wilson (@kristin__wilson) January 10, 2021

Bobic told Good Morning America on Thursday he was covering Congress as they were certifying electoral votes from the presidential election when he heard “a commotion.”

"I ran downstairs to the first floor of the Senate building, where I encountered this lone police officer courageously making a stand against the mob of 20 or so Trump supporters who breached the capitol itself and were trying to get upstairs,” Bobic said.

In the footage Bobic shared, Goodman wasn’t wearing tactical gear nor did he have his gun out. Yet he shoved the mob leader, identified as Doug Jenson of Iowa, before running to grab a baton. At least 20 or more people can then be seen chasing the lone officer, who diverted them away from the Senate chamber. “They were yelling ‘Traitors. We want justice. This is our America. If we don’t stop this now, we won’t get justice. Trump won,’” Bobic told Good Morning America.

“These folks had zip ties,” Kirk D. Burkhalter, a professor at New York Law School and a former New York City police officer, told The Washington Post, referring to photos of rioters with zip tie handcuffs. “It’s not unreasonable to say that they were ready to take hostages ... Officer Goodman really helped to avoid a tremendous tragedy.”

After the footage went viral, colleagues and friends identified Goodman. "He'd do the same thing again,” a friend told The Washington Post, noting that Goodman is "not looking for any accolades."

Officials from the 101st Airborne Division also took to Twitter to praise Goodman, noting that he was a hero to the country years before last week.

According to the Military Times, Goodman served in the Army from 2002 and 2006 and deployed to Iraq for one year with the 101st Airborne Division. His awards include a combat infantryman badge.

Capitol police officer Eugene Goodman is rightfully being hailed as a hero after singlehandedly holding back rioters from entering the Senate chambers last week. An Iraq combat vet and member of this Corps, Eugene was a hero long before last Wednesday. We celebrate his valor. pic.twitter.com/CLWlLG3bIW

— XVIII Airborne Corps (@18airbornecorps) January 14, 2021

Other friends of Goodman told the Post that his decision to lead the rioters away instead of engaging with them reflects his military experience.

“He was diverting people from getting on the Senate floor and getting hostages. It was the smartest thing that he could have ever done,” a colleague said. “I don’t know that many people who can think on their feet like that ... His quick thinking enabled those senators to get to safety.”

Goodman’s ability to not only lead the rioters away from the Senate Chambers but call for backup and show restraint to prevent injury or loss of life pays tribute to his dedication to service and his heroic qualities. Despite his newfound fame, Goodman has remained humble and maintained the same positive attitude, his colleagues told the Post. 

Goodman’s attitude toward his job has remained the same despite his newfound fame.

“My job is to protect and serve,” Goodman told co-workers after the video of him went viral. “And on that day, I was protecting.”

Friday, Jan 15, 2021 · 2:52:43 PM +00:00 · Aysha Qamar

Newly shared terrifying footage from the other side:

Wow. First time I’m seeing video *taken by one of the first rioters* to breach the Capitol and storm up the Senate steps. I actually recorded him as he was recording me on the first floor. “Where are they counting the votes?” one is heard shouting https://t.co/6uvvBznma0

— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) January 15, 2021

The last days of Trump: Abandoned, detested, and as angry as always

Posted on by Mark Sumner

On Thursday, the major activity at the White House seemed to be staff members escaping with photographs and statues that very likely were not theirs to take. Inside, many offices are described as empty, due to all those staffers who suddenly began getting concerned that continuing to associate with a twice-impeached instigator of an insurrection might not be good for their resume.

Meanwhile, somewhere inside the maze of empty offices, Donald Trump still lurks, his fingers twitching to send out tweets forever out of reach, his fevered brow unmopped by an absent Hope Hicks, his bellows of impotent rage echoing sweetly, sweetly through the corridors. And if there is one thing that’s getting Trump extra ragey in these final days before he’s escorted from the property, it is any comparison between himself and one Richard M. Nixon. 

Especially because the thing that keeps coming up is the one thing that Nixon did right for the nation—resign.

As CNN reports, Trump is spending his days in a tweetless, rally-less, and apparently friendless circle of accusations, impeachment, and plunging poll numbers. As he gets ready to head out the door to the lowest ratings since there have been ratings, the one thing that Trump has made absolutely clear is that he’s not going to emulate the one thing that Nixon did that benefited both the nation and himself. That’s not to say the idea wasn’t discussed by staffers and Cabinet members. It was. However, Trump shot down any possibility that he might depart without being kicked out. So much so that now any mention of the the 37th president has been completely banned.

Trump probably doesn’t want to be reminded that not only did Nixon recognize a losing proposition and walk away before getting impeached, he also managed to keep his popularity high enough to grab a second term before his actions related to Watergate brought everything crashing down. Meanwhile, the same Pew poll shows that the major motivation for many voters in 2020 was the chance to get rid of Trump. A majority felt that Trump had bumbled the response to the coronavirus, and an even larger majority want Trump to simply go away and never be a major figure in U.S. politics again.

Right now, Trump can look out his window and see bunting and signs for "2021 Biden-Harris Inauguration" from stands that have been erected across from the White House. Inside the White House, his sources of comfort are few. Not only has Hicks departed, but Trump is on the outs with Rudy Giuliani and infinitely mad at wingman Mike Pence. It’s hard to find a single White House staffer who hasn’t earned Trump’s scorn over the past few weeks by slipping up and admitting the reality—he lost, and his time is almost up.

Aides have tried to cheer Trump up by asking him to give one last address to the nation, one in which he could list all those accomplishments like giving a massive tax break to billionaires, building 30 miles of wall through a national monument that disrupted irreplaceable cultural sites, killing off 400,000 Americans, and triggering the first invasion of the Capitol since 1814. But even this list of incredible achievements has failed to stir Trump into getting out his Sharpie and jotting down a few last-minute lies. 

Instead, Trump is demanding a big sendoff. However, staff are having to work hard to collect enough warm bodies to make it appear that anyone still cares. There’s also the little fact that if Trump waits until the inauguration to depart, he’ll not only be flying on a plane that is no longer Air Force One, but will have to ask Biden’s permission to borrow his jet. Trump hates all of that.

With most of Trump’s Cabinet already departed—some due to last-minute resignations—it will surprise exactly no one if Trump decides to head for Mar-a-Lago while he still doesn’t have to ask someone else for the keys to the plane.

Schumer, Pelosi grapple with uncertainty and ongoing threats in proceeding to Trump’s Senate trial

Posted on by Joan McCarter

The timing of the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump in the Senate remains uncertain as the week closes out. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was asked in her Friday press conference about when the impeachment article charging Trump with "incitement of insurrection," which was passed in the House on Wednesday, will go to the Senate. She didn't answer.

"Right now, our managers are solemnly and prayerfully preparing for the trial which they will take to the Senate," Pelosi said. "At the same time, we are in transition. With the COVID relief package President-elect Biden announced last night, he is delivering on what he said when he was elected, 'help is on the way.'" What that likely means is soon-to-be Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is still working out how it will proceed in consultation with the transition team for President-elect Joe Biden. Outgoing Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused this week to work with Schumer to speed up the process and reconvene the Senate ahead of Tuesday's scheduled official session. Everything about this process from this point is novel for the Senate.

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There's the high level of physical danger surrounding the whole of the Capitol complex after the attack and for Biden's inauguration. There're the two Democratic senators from Georgia, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, whose election still hasn't been certified; the deadline for that is Jan. 22, though it could happen on Jan. 19, the same day the Senate comes back. This process in these circumstances is entirely new: "Everything we are talking about is being invented out of whole cloth," Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy told The New York Times. "We have never tried a president after they left office. We've never had an insurrection against the Capitol. We've never held a trial while we are confirming a cabinet. All of this is first impression."

But Democrats remain committed to figuring it out. "I can see no reason we cannot find a way with our archaic rules," said Sen. Amy Klobuchar. Working that out, at this moment, seems to look like splitting the Senate sessions, the Times reports. Schumer and McConnell met Thursday, with a "goal … to divide the Senate’s days so the chamber could work on confirming members of Mr. Biden’s cabinet and considering his stimulus package in the morning and then take up the impeachment trial in the afternoon." Until that is nailed down, it's not clear that Pelosi would initiate the process by formally sending the article over to the Senate.

The outcome there is also unclear, and again it depends a lot on McConnell. He's reportedly told associates that he's sick of Trump, supports the impeachment, wants him expunged from the Republican Party, and sees his impeachment as a way to do that. But that's hearsay right now; McConnell hasn't made those statements public. Maybe he's waiting to see if Trump does anything else between now and Wednesday, his last day in Washington. Maybe he's genuinely undecided. But if McConnell votes for conviction, there will very likely be 16 other Republicans joining him.

As of now, Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski is the closest to declaring her intent. On Thursday, she said that Trump's words on Jan. 6 "incited violence," which "briefly interfered with the government's ability to ensure a peaceful transfer of power." She continued: "Such unlawful actions cannot go without consequence and the House has responded swiftly, and I believe, appropriately, with impeachment." Others who have suggested they would vote to convince include Sens. Richard Shelby of Alabama, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, and Mitt Romney of Utah. If you had that many, surely Maine's Susan Collins would jump on, unless she's too bitter that Democrats had the effrontery to mount a challenge to her reelection. Again, whether enough decide that Trump has to be cut out of the body politic like a cancer depends much on McConnell.

All those Republicans need to heed Michigan Rep. Peter Meijer, one of the 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach, even at potential physical harm to himself and his family. "I have colleagues who are now traveling with armed escorts, out of the fear for their safety. Many of us are altering our routines, working to get body armor, which is a reimbursable purchase that we can make. … It's sad that we have to get to that point," he said. "But, you know, our expectation is that someone may try to kill us."

However, "I think you have to set that aside," he said. "I don't believe in giving an assassin's veto, an insurrectionist's veto, a heckler's veto. If we let that guide decisions, then you're cowering to the mob. I mean, that's the definition of terrorism—is trying to achieve a political end using violence." How many senators will have that courage?

Cartoon: ‘EZ-Leave!’ To Show You Care

Posted on by Mark Fiore

Vimeo Video

Now that President Trump has become the first president in the history of the United States to be impeached twice, more of his Republican allies will no doubt slink away. Resignations have already been piling up from the cabinet level on down since Trump incited a violent mob to attack the U.S. Capitol building.

Betsy DeVos, Elaine Chao and Mick Mulvaney, among others, have just had it up to here with this president. Why, some switch must have flipped and made Trump a madman, right? (Mulvaney even said that today’s Trump is not the one he knew eight months ago.)

I’m happy complicit Republicans are finally trying to un-complicit themselves, I just wish they had found their spines when Trump tried to get Ukraine’s president to dig up dirt on Joe Biden or when the administration separated thousands of children from their families or right after the “both sides” comment about Charlottesville or . . .

Enjoy the cartoon, cross your fingers for an impeachment conviction and visit me over on my Patreon pages if you can help support my work — and get behind-the-scenes goodies for yourself!

McConnell tries to shut down momentum on impeachment, leaves time for more discovery of Trump crimes

Posted on (Updated by Joan McCarter

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.

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The 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.

House Republicans overwhelmingly stood behind Trump after he incited white supremacist insurrection

Posted on by Ashton Lattimore

The House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald Trump for a historic second time on Jan. 13, and in the process confirmed that even after he incited a white supremacist insurrection at the Capitol building, an overwhelming majority of Republicans see still no problem with Trump’s conduct. While it is technically correct that the 10 Republican votes in favor of impeachment made it “the most bipartisan one in history,” as described by the The Washington Post, The New York Times, CNN, and others, that’s an extremely low bar to clear. In fact, the vote numbers don’t suggest bipartisanship in any meaningful sense, but rather paint a stark portrait of a political party that has almost unanimously aligned itself with white supremacy and the white backlash to BIPOC political ascendancy. As if to drive home the point, GOP representatives even booed Rep. Cori Bush for denouncing white supremacy during the hearings. Rather than rushing to lionize the handful of Republicans who momentarily broke with the party—and did so only after their own sense of safety was threatened—news coverage needs to reflect these realities.

There are 211 Republicans in the House of Representatives, only 10 of them voted in favor of impeachment. That means over 95% watched as insurrectionists broke into the Capitol with Confederate battle flags held high and white supremacist symbols adorning their bodies as they apparently searched the building for government officials to execute, and decided, “This is fine.” Of course, the overwhelmingly white Republican caucus may have correctly surmised that they weren’t the ones in mortal danger on Jan. 6. Rather, Democratic members of Congress—especially women and Black and brown members—represented the primary targets of the mob’s ire, as newly emerging details have revealed.

The same day the impeachment vote was taken, the Boston Globe reported that as Rep. Ayanna Pressley and her staff barricaded themselves in her office to keep safe from the intruders, they discovered all of the panic buttons in the office had been torn out. On Instagram Live the evening before the vote, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that during the attack she “had a very close encounter where I thought I was going to die.” Both Pressley and Ocasio-Cortez are part of The Squad, an outspoken group of progressive Black and Latina Democratic representatives elected to the House of Representatives in 2018 and 2020, which also includes Bush and Reps. Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Jamaal Bowman. As highly visible avatars of women and BIPOC’s growing political and demographic power, members of The Squad have long been on the receiving end of racist rhetoric and right-wing death threats. The events of Jan. 6 suggest at least some people had designs on carrying those threats out, possibly even with help from members of Congress who graciously offered “reconnaissance tours” to the insurrectionists. 

The attempted coup also posed a significant risk to a great many Black and brown people who aren’t lawmakers. The residents of Washington, D.C. itself—a largely Black city—along with Congressional support staff and Capitol building custodians had to contend with the trauma of being descended upon by a white supremacist mob, and afterward, were left to clean up the mess that same mob left behind. Overly credulous news coverage praising “principled” Republicans not only threatens to miss the racial realities of where most of the party stands, but also the narrowly circumscribed and race-specific extent of its support for the working class.  

With the looming threat of more insurrectionist violence in the coming days, it is of the highest moral and political significance that so many House Republicans condoned and aided the racist incitement that put the republic, fellow Americans, and the lives of their own Congressional colleagues in serious peril. And because the animating impulses behind the Capitol insurrection won’t wane with the dawn of the post-Trump political era, it’s imperative that we in the media don’t close our eyes to what the impeachment vote actually has to tell us about race, politics, and power in the United States.

Ashton Lattimore is the editor-in-chief of Prism. Follow her on Twitter @ashtonlattimore.

Prism is a BIPOC-led nonprofit news outlet that centers the people, places and issues currently underreported by our national media. Through our original reporting, analysis, and commentary, we challenge dominant, toxic narratives perpetuated by the mainstream press and work to build a full and accurate record of what’s happening in our democracy. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Rep. Brian Mast is a craven, repulsive liar, but we can still answer his question

Posted on by Hunter

Trump loyalist Florida Rep. Brian Mast is now a traitor to his country, but more to the point he is also dishonest, politically craven, and a garbage human being. So let's dispense with this quickly.

During the impeachment vote, Mast was one of many House Republicans attempting to straddle the thin line of claiming to be outraged by last week's armed insurrection against Congress while still insisting that Donald Trump's role in inciting attempted murders was not impeachable because reasons. The argument was insincere, lie-based, and about what you would expect from one of the traitors who himself egged on violence with hoax claims of election flaws that did not exist.

Indeed, Mast was one of those lawmakers to rise in challenge to the counting of electoral votes on Jan. 6 immediately before a mob entered the building with the intent of capturing or murdering those who would not sign on to the same Trump-promoted false claims. There is a direct line between Mast's lies and multiple deaths, and between Mast's lies and the now-broken chain of "peaceful transition of power" that lasted from the Civil War until the time Brian Mast was elected to Congress. He is a seditionist, and was before the violence began.

One of Mast's pillars of argument was that you could not pin the armed insurrection on Trump because there was no evidence Trump did the thing everyone in the nation saw him doing: "Has any one of those individuals who brought violence to this Capitol been brought here to answer if they did that because of our president?" He said this very smugly, like a stupid person believing themselves to be the first in history to notice that the sun and moon looked to be approximately the same size, and waited for a response that he knew would not come because speeches on the floor of Congress do not generally follow a call-and-response format.

Here ya go, sport. Video of the insurrectionists asserting that they were "invited" into the building by Donald Trump.

Florida Rep. Brian Mast making what seems, to him, to be a dramatic point: Standing silently after asking if any rioters have said that they acted bc of the president. Well. https://t.co/WfPqWB8BUM

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) January 13, 2021

We done here? Yeah, probably.

There's not going to be the wholesale expulsion of seditionists and traitors responsible for these deaths because the House Republican caucus is a collection of criminals who fully intend to immunize each other even for insurrection—they will purge the non-seditionists like (shudder) Liz Cheney and elevate the most vocal promotors of the party's democracy-attacking lies to ever-higher positions. That’s too bad, but it does not absolve them of the provably false claims that led to murders and now to law enforcement warnings of a new possible era of conservative-stoked terrorism. They are still the insurrection's ringleaders, and it falls on all the rest of us to treat them with the appropriate amount of contempt and disgust for the rest of their lives.

Rep. Brian Mast, your hoaxes and lies led to an attempt on your colleagues' lives. You are a traitor to your nation. And you are in crowded company.

In likely final immigration rant as president, Trump worries about his wall being taken down

Posted on by Gabe Ortiz

Donald Trump, set to be the first president to have been impeached twice, went to the U.S./Mexico border Tuesday to do exactly what we said he’d do. While there was of course a bunch of self-congratulation for the border fencing built with stolen U.S. taxpayer funds because Mexico never did end up paying for it, Trump ended his final border visit as president the same way he kicked off his racist campaign in 2015.

“President Trump traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border on Tuesday and recited a bunch of old claims about immigrants and crime that we’ve long rated false or misleading,” The Washington Post reported. “Our practice is not to award Pinocchios when we round up multiple claims, but Trump as usual butchered the facts with his spin about immigrants, ending his term as it began.” Immigrant rights advocacy group RAICES noted that networks didn’t broadcast his bullshit live, either.

Some racist lies uttered by Trump in Texas I’m not going to go into here because after five years I’m sick and tired of having to justify the humanity of immigrants following some disgusting speech he made somewhere. While I’m sure this man will remain a boil on the butt of humanity post Jan. 20, I hope this is the final time I ever have to address his racist remarks as president. If you want to read exactly what he said in Texas, here’s The Post’s roundup. 

We should however address some of his lies about policy, because this is damage that President-elect Biden can immediately begin to reverse after he takes office next week.

“One of the biggest loopholes we closed was asylum fraud under the old broken system,” Trump falsely claimed on Tuesday. “If you merely requested asylum, you were released into the country. The most ridiculous thing anyone’s ever seen. And we were taking in some people that you didn’t want to have in your country. We instituted a series of historic policy changes to shut down asylum fraud, and that’s what we did.”

“Wrong on multiple levels,” The Post corrected. Or as I immediately thought, bullshit, bullshit, bullshit.

What Trump has done is shut down the U.S. asylum system to just about everybody, through dangerous and unlawful policies like Migrant Protection Protocols, or Remain in Mexico, and the politically motivated Stephen Miller order using the novel coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to quickly expel thousands of asylum-seekers, including children.

“As of Jan 2020 (1 yr ago) @humanrights1st had tracked at least 816 public reports of murder, torture, rape, kidnapping, and other violent attacks against asylum-seekers and migrants returned to Mexico under MPP,” RAICES tweeted. “Trump's take: ‘MPP saved countless lives from crime.’” In shocking audio obtained by CNN last year, the Trump administration in fact admitted the policy was dangerous after having publicly defended it as having “successfully provided protections” to asylum seekers.

Parents forced to wait for their U.S. immigration court dates in Mexico under the policy have become so desperate, that they’ve been forced to send their children to the U.S. by themselves, resulting in another form of family separation. Among those parents has been Alexis Martinez, who recounted to NPR in late 2019 watching his children, 5-year-old Benjamin and 7-year-old Osiel, holding hands as they crossed into the U.S. alone. 

”All in all, today's appearance was a victory lap (if you can even call it that) of the only thing in his presidency Trump was able to accomplish: dismantle our immigration system as we know it,” RAICES continued. The organization noted that Trump spent time praising the out-of-control agents of Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, something that “reeks of danger. These agencies were already vile & during the last 4 years the Trump admin fostered an already rampant racism & xenophobia within them.”

But in the end, Vox reports that Trump’s main concern wasn’t the lives he’s destroyed through his policies or the enduring damage policies like Remain in Mexico has created, but instead about his precious, stupid wall. “We can’t let the next administration even think about taking it down,” he said according to the report. President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to stop building when he takes office next week. He needs to knock the motherfucker down too.