Cindy McCain Blasts GOP – Says It Was Once About Inclusion But ‘We Have Lost Our Way’

Posted on January 15, 2021 by LifeZette

Cindy McCain, the widow of the late Republican Senator John McCain, went on her daughter’s talk show “The View” on Thursday morning to blast the GOP, saying that it has “lost its way.”

Cindy McCain Talks Possibly Being Censured By Arizona GOP

“The Arizona GOP is in talks to censure you as well as a former senator Jeff Flake and our wonderful governor Doug Ducey, and I think I’m actually included in the censuring because it said part of the McCain family,” Meghan McCain said to her mother. “I don’t know what’s going on. I’m horrified and disgusted. Why do you think there’s so much anger at our family and Jeff Flake and Doug Ducey?”

“Well, it’s the same thing,” Cindy replied. “It’s about doing what’s right for the country, and certainly, Senator Flake and our Governor Ducey have made some very tough decisions lately and in the past, but it was for the good of our state and for our country.”

“I, you know, I’m in good company,” she added. “Your dad was censured by them. I think I’m going to make t-shirts for everyone, and wear them, you know. You’ll be happy to know, Meghan, they did take the family part out. You’re no longer included.”

Cindy McCain Attacks Republican Party.

Not stopping there, Cindy went on to double down about how much she feels the Republican Party has changed.

“I think what we have seen here is when I began in the Republican Party officially, the Republican Party was the party of inclusion,” she said. “It was the party of generosity. It was the party of country first. We have lost our way.”

“We have lost our way, and it’s time that we get back on track because we have always been the party that cared deeply, that loved what our country did and what it stood for,” Cindy continued. “We have lost our way. I truly hope that as things progress on and we get further away from this mess that occurred, that we can do just that. We can get back on track and remind everyone that we are here for the country and not our party.”

Cindy McCain to @TheView on the possibility of being censured by Arizona GOP: "It's about doing what's right for the country…Sen. Flake and our Gov. Ducey have made some very tough decisions lately and in the past—but it was for the good of our state and for our country." pic.twitter.com/kXUcqWEqUf

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) January 14, 2021

The entire McCain family has long been vehemently anti-Donald Trump. Meghan has spent much of the week since the Capitol riots calling on Republicans to impeach him.

This piece was written by James Samson on January 15, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

The post Cindy McCain Blasts GOP – Says It Was Once About Inclusion But ‘We Have Lost Our Way’ appeared first on The Political Insider.

With Trump leaving office, what is the GOP’s future?

Posted on January 14, 2021 by PBS NewsHour - Politics

The events at the Capitol, beginning with a violent mob and ending with the second impeachment of President Trump, have exposed deep rifts in the Republican Party. With Trump set to leave office, we discuss the GOP's future with Lanhee Chen, a Hoover Institution fellow who's advised several Republican presidential candidates, and Gary Abernathy, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post.

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

Posted on January 14, 2021 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.

CNN’s Jake Tapper: GOP Needs ‘Political Exorcist,’ Republicans ‘Clearly Have Lost Their Minds’

Posted on January 14, 2021 by John Hanson

After the House voted to impeach President Donald Trump for a second time on Wednesday, CNN anchor Jake Tapper said that Republicans “are in a state of denial about the fact that he incited this riot” and believes the GOP needs a political ‘exorcism.’

Of the impeachment, Tapper said, “It is the most bipartisan impeachment in American history, far exceeding the number of people in the opposing party who voted to impeach Clinton or Johnson. So I do think it is significant.”

Tapper has been very outspoken about his views lately.

A week ago MAGA terrorists, incited by Trump, his son, his lawyer, and months of lies by far too many folks in the GOP and media, tried to stop the Constitutional election process through a terrorist attack on the Capitol. 5 were killed. They are now trying to change the subject.

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 14, 2021

Tapper Blasts Republicans Who ‘Believe All Of His Lies’

“On the other hand, it is still a vast minority of the House Republican Caucus, most of whom are still devoted to President Trump,” Tapper continued.

Tapper added, “Most of whom are in a state of denial about the fact that he incited this riot, this terrorist attack on the Capitol that put their own lives at risk, which is stunning in and of itself.”

He continued, “You know, I know a number of people, and I know there are a lot of Americans out there who have seen, are friends with or married to or related to people who have drunk the Trump Kool-aid, who have become radicalized by this president, who believe all of his lies, despite the evidence in front of their faces.”

Then Tapper told CNN Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash that Republicans are losing their minds.

“Dana, it’s just —it’s a shocking thing to behold when you know people like this. And it’s also shocking, like I don’t know about you, but there are Republican members of Congress I know who clearly have lost their minds, who just will not accept reality when it comes to the facts about Donald Trump.”

Jake Tapper says the GOP needs a "political exorcist" to get the crazy demon out.

— Victoria Brownworth (@VABVOX) January 13, 2021

Bash replied, “We have seen people like Liz Cheney and Mitch McConnell try to show the people who respect them where to go and lead them there.”

It’s interesting to note who CNN thinks the “good” Republicans are – Establishment neoconservatives Liz Cheney and Mitch McConnell.

“Then there are so many others who are following the pack,” Bash said. “Even though the pack is going in the wrong direction. The pack is following the lies.”

Tapper chimed in, “Like Kevin McCarthy.”

Tapper continued, “Marjorie Taylor Greene, the crazy congresswoman from Georgia, who is anti-Semitic and supports QAnon and said a plane didn’t hit the Pentagon on 9/11, she actually tweeted during this, a week after the terrorist attack, that Democrats are the enemy of the people.”

Republicans need “a political exorcist.” – Jake Tapper

— Nurse Robert LB (@HeyNurse_lb) January 13, 2021

Tapper: GOP Needs ‘Political Exorcist’

That’s when Tapper said maybe an “exorcist” needed to intervene.

“I don’t know if there’s such a job as a political exorcist but they need to do something to fix the Republican Party to get this demon out,” Tapper said.

It is doubtful that Republican voters are going to take CNN’s advice on who to support going forward.

It’s also interesting to note that anti-Trump journalists haven’t figured out that the more they hysterically demonize Donald Trump, the more Republicans are going to support him.

Conservatives view how the media treats different Republicans as a test. If CNN loves Liz Cheney, for example, chances are, she’s not someone who conservatives can trust to fight for their interests.

The post CNN’s Jake Tapper: GOP Needs ‘Political Exorcist,’ Republicans ‘Clearly Have Lost Their Minds’ appeared first on The Political Insider.

Conservative Favorite Vernon Jones Explains Why He Ditched The Dems, Switched To GOP

Posted on January 13, 2021 by Rusty Weiss

Vernon Jones, a black former Democrat and supporter of President Trump, published an op-ed in which he explains why he switched to the Republican Party.

Jones officially announced his party switch in early January, stating that the Democrat Party had changed, not him.

“I am no longer a Democrat,” he said. “I cannot stand for the defunding of the police, higher taxes on working families, and job-killing socialist policies that will devastate Americans of all walks of life.”

Jones accused his former party of dragging Americans down through “a false narrative based on race-baiting, identity politics, and widespread propaganda fed to the masses.”

As a lifelong Democrat and black man, it pains me to admit this.

But I’ve come to a realization: the Democrat Party doesn’t give a damn about us.

They’ve become more concerned about putting illegals first and Americans last. pic.twitter.com/slIYNvaqTk

— Vernon Jones (@RepVernonJones) May 1, 2020

Jones Urges Dems To Try And Understand What Happened At The Capitol

As if to drive the identity politics point home, Democrats have been actively transforming the narrative surrounding the riots at the Capitol earlier this month as some sort of ‘white supremacy’ protest.

Former First Lady Hillary Clinton claimed the riots were the “result of white supremacist grievances” while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested the protesters chose their “their whiteness” over Democracy.

It’s morphed from protests conducted by people concerned about Democracy to people who are simply racists.

Jones blasted Democrat leaders for not seriously attempting to understand what led to the protesters’ anger.

“The problem with many who are part of the establishment and talking heads on television is that instead of digging into why so many Americans are so frustrated, they’ve chosen to ridicule, condemn and misrepresent the facts,” he wrote.

“It’s only going to feed into the discontent and disdain so many Americans have for Washington.”

“Tens of millions of Americans have legitimate concerns surrounding the election,” Jones added. “Instead of responding to their concerns with facts and reassurance, Washington Democrats and the coastal elites reacted with disdain, misinformation and censorship.”

This isn’t even about President Trump anymore. The Democrat Party and permanent Washington political class is doing everything they can to silence the millions of Americans who want to continue to change Washington and break up the status quo. #FeelTheVern https://t.co/hPrIlSc3AR

— Vernon Jones (@RepVernonJones) January 12, 2021

Jones Was Attacked And Harassed By BLM Rioters

If anybody knows a thing or two about how the Democrat Party’s rhetoric affects Americans, it’s Jones.

This past summer, he was harassed and had racial slurs hurled at him by Black Lives Matter protesters.

“Are you a black Trump supporter?” one man asks Jones after he left the Republican National Convention in late August.

“You’re a f***ing disgrace! Shame!” somebody yelled, as another shouted, “You house [n-word]!”

Now, as Democrats close in on the second impeachment of President Trump, it’s clear they have zero regard for their fellow citizens or the Constitution.

They have but one focus.

“It’s almost as if this isn’t about democracy or the Constitution for the so-called ‘elite,’ but all about power and destroying President Trump,” Jones wrote.

The post Conservative Favorite Vernon Jones Explains Why He Ditched The Dems, Switched To GOP appeared first on The Political Insider.

Ben Sasse And The GOP Aim To Purge Trumpism, Return To Bush-Era

Posted on January 13, 2021 by Derek Ellerman

By A.J. Rice for RealClearMarkets

Hot Tub Time Machine is about to get another sequel. But instead of super talented funny men like Rob Corddry and Craig Robinson, the third installment of the franchise will star politicians like Mitt Romney, Larry Hogan, John Kasich and Ben Sasse.

The plot is to return the conservative movement to a super polite group of stiff losers who wait their turn to speak while inspiring no one. Colin Powell approves.

As President Donald Trump fights for America, the beloved cherub-like Sen. Ben Sasse, alleged Republican of Nebraska, fights for the media and the Democrats.

This is not a new problem. Sasse stood up as the Senate’s NeverTrumper all the way back in 2016. When Trump was fighting Hillary Clinton, Sasse was fighting Trump.

When Trump was fighting the Obama administration’s Russia hoax, Sasse was fighting Trump.

When Trump has fought socialism, Marxism, wokism, antifa, defund the police, and the entire Big Tech/media industrial complex, across four grueling years, guess where Ben Sasse was when he wasn’t in the hot-tub with Jeff Flake?

Teach your children to never grow up and be Ben Sasse.

Not one time during Trump’s successful term in the White House, did Ben Sasse put his own ego aside and step up for the conservative, American principles he claims he supports.

Donald Trump delivered the most conservative presidency since Ronald Wilson Reagan. Trump out-performed both Bushes by miles. His conservative accomplishments for America include:

The strongest job market, for all demographics, in decades
Tax cuts that strengthened the lower and middle classed and unleashed American business
Bringing jobs that the Bushies’ NAFTA sent to China and Mexico back to America
Historic peace deals between Israel and several of its Arab neighbors
Curbed illegal immigration through the wall and enforcement
American energy independence and dominance for the first time in decades

Where was Ben Sasse when Donald Trump was racking up win after win for Americans? Where was Ben Sasse when Donald Trump was donating his salary while making sure more and more Americans could find jobs and put food on their tables?

Sasse was sniping at Trump. Sasse compared Trump to the odious David Duke and even Hillary Clinton. Sasse became the media’s favorite Republican, like John McCain before him, by taking pot-shots at a more successful Republican.

In 2017, just four months after inauguration, Sasse was already sitting down for cozy interviews with the media and plotting against Trump.

Trump was already fighting for his political life. He had been since before taking office. Sasse was preparing to frag him.

Trump battled back against the media as it launched wave after wave of attack against him on the Russia hoax. Trump could have used some Senate support.

He could have benefited if a conservative from the heartland had his back. He got none of that from Sasse. Instead, Sasse accused Trump of “weaponizing distrust in the media.”

When Trump was fighting against the media as the enemy of the people, Sasse was making sure the media knew whose side he was on.

Trump had every right to call out the media for its campaign of lies against him. The media is dishonest. It’s untrustworthy. It is the hider of truth and the enemy of the people.

Led by the New York Times, the media attacked the foundations of America itself through the 1619 Project and cancel culture. Most Americans rightly despise the media.

But Sasse weaponized the media against Trump.

Trump used Twitter before his banishment to fight back, get around the lying media, and talk directly to the American people. What did Sasse do? He clapped back — at Trump.

When the media created the lie that Trump had not denounced white supremacists, which he clearly did immediately after the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, Sasse shamelessly helped push that lie forward.

As Trump built his astonishing success record, Sasse continued to attack him. In 2018, Trump’s second year, Sasse went to the media to tell the world that he was not on board the Trump train. The truth is, Sasse never even gave Trump or his ideas a chance.

February, 2019: Trump is still battling the media, still racking up conservative wins for America, and getting ready to face the Democrats for reelection.

Where was Sasse? Head-faking that he just might run against Trump in the GOP presidential primary. That earned Sasse more fawning media coverage and helped the Democrats. It didn’t help Trump fight for America.

But fast forward to September 2019. Sasse is up for reelection to the Senate. Trump is successful and leading a conservative juggernaut in American policy.

Trump has the approval of about 90% of Republicans. Sasse the NeverTrumper decides he needs a helping hand from the president he has spent years trashing.

Trump graciously endorses Sasse, and Sasse wins reelection to the Senate.

How does the allegedly conservative Republican senator repay Trump’s generosity?

By undermining Trump as he fights for the integrity of the presidential election, the foundation on which the legitimacy of our republic rests.

Across 2020 before and after the election, Sasse has come at Trump over challenging the election, presidential pardons, even Trump’s quick walk to a historic church showing order had been restored after antifa rioters nearly destroyed it, and Washington DC’s inept mayor did nothing to stop them.

Sasse isn’t done kicking Trump. After protesters including some Trump supporters and antifa apologists broke into the U.S. Capitol on January 6, Sasse set a land speed record for getting to his keyboard to blame Trump.

The fact that there were election irregulariries that rated attention, and that Democrats including Joe Biden had not opposed months of violent rioting and attacks on symbols of America across the nation, doesn’t seem to have ever entered Sasse’s mind.

Sasse is a waste of a Senate seat for the Republican party. In a nation seeking authenticity, Sasse is a steaming fraud. He uses the labels of “Republican” and “conservative” to undermine the republic and hand power to the opposition.

He’s a menace to the party and to the principles he claims to cherish.

Does Sasse see a President when he looks at his reflection in the hot tub? Most likely. But the GOP has changed under Trump and no one is time traveling back to the days of losing honorably like John McCain did in 2008.

Ben Sasse, alleged conservative, has delivered no help to the most conservative president in decades. Parents, teach your kids not to be the fair-weather “friend” that Ben Sasse has been to Donald Trump. Teach them to be better than that.

Syndicated with permission from RealClearWire.

A.J. Rice is CEO of Publius PR, a premier communications firm in Washington D.C. Rice is a brand manager, star-whisperer and auteur media influencer, who has produced or promoted Laura Ingraham, Donald Trump Jr., Judge Jeanine Pirro, Monica Crowley, Charles Krauthammer, Alan Dershowitz, Roger L. Simon, Steve Hilton, Victor Davis Hanson, and many others. Find out more at publiuspr.com.

The post Ben Sasse And The GOP Aim To Purge Trumpism, Return To Bush-Era appeared first on The Political Insider.

Republicans in disarray as GOP leadership fractures over Trump’s impeachment, removal

Posted on January 13, 2021 by Kerry Eleveld

From the GOP rank and file to those in leadership roles, Republican lawmakers are placing their bets—about their own political futures, the future of the party, and even how history will reflect on this fraught moment for the country.

And while Democrats' resolve to hold Donald Trump to account for inciting violence has proven uniquely unifying for most of the country, the Republican party is dividing amongst itself between those who think Trump is culpable and even impeachable and those who have hitched their raft irrevocably to Trumptanic. And make no mistake, Trump's support is tanking, even among Republican voters. A Morning Consult poll of GOP voters released Wednesday found that just 42% of them said they would vote for Trump in a 2024 presidential primary. Given what Trump has done, that level of support still seems high, but it's slipped 12 points from a Nov. 21-23 survey when the outlet posed the same question. And it's a far cry from the high-80s/low-90s support Trump has enjoyed among Republican voters throughout his term.

Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the House GOP's No. 3, became the highest ranking Republican Tuesday to firmly plant her flag on the side of impeaching Trump, saying, "There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution."

Last Wednesday, Cheney was attempting to convince her GOP colleagues to vote for certification when she received a phone call from her father informing her that Trump had attacked her in his rally speech. In her statement Tuesday declaring she would vote to impeach Trump, she wrote, “The president could have immediately and forcefully intervened to stop the violence. He did not.”

Cheney's declaration marked a sharp break with her fellow GOP leaders, Reps. Kevin McCarthy of California and Steve Scalise of Louisiana, both of whom echoed Trump's post-election fraud claims and then voted to reject the election results even after his cultists stormed the Capitol.

Meanwhile in the upper chamber, soon-to-be Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, signaled his much squishier lean toward potentially convicting Trump through anonymous sources to several different outlets.

Among rank and file GOP members, a smaller anti-Trump cadre has emerged with some members faulting Trump and his GOP enablers for the siege and others even stepping up to back impeachment.

“To allow the President of the United States to incite this attack without consequence is a direct threat to the future of our democracy. For that reason, I cannot sit by without taking action,” New York Rep. John Katko, the ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee and a former federal prosecutor, wrote in a statement.

The reality is, many of these GOP members stepping forward also fear for their lives now that Trump has turned the party into a raging mob. CNN is reporting that many of Republican lawmakers are getting direct pressure from Trump not to defect on the impeachment vote, which isn't exactly surprising but certainly underscores the urgency of his removal from office. McCarthy has reportedly urged his pro-Trump members not to verbally attack pro-impeachment Republicans because their lives could be on the line.

But at the end of the day, impeachment is happening, with or without House Republicans. And momentum is clearly on the side of Democrats' strong stand against Trump as corporate titans, big tech, public opinion, military leadership, and other entities join the push to draw a line in the sand.

The McCarthy's of the world have bet wrong. There's simply no way he can erase his fealty to Trump, and he also doesn't have the spine to disavow Trump. And as hard as it is to imagine a Trump loyalist losing his leadership role in the party, it's equally as hard to imagine having a GOP leader who can't fundraise because he's been shunned by corporate donors and polite society alike as a seditionist. That is simply an impossible position for a GOP congressional leader.

And if there's one way to judge exactly how incomprehensible that posture is, it's by looking at the Republican leader of the Senate caucus. McConnell's lower-profile openness to potentially convicting Trump is both a seismic shift and a window into his vision for safeguarding the future existence of the party. And if McConnell ultimately supports conviction of Trump, some GOP sources are openly wondering if the 67 votes to convict might actually materialize.

"If Mitch is a yes, he's done," said one Senate GOP source who asked not to be named, according to CNN.

Meanwhile, McCarthy has been running around pushing to censure Trump in an effort to ostensibly hold Trump accountable without actually holding him accountable. Safe to say McCarthy's political fortunes aren't particularly bright at this moment. Perhaps he can form a support group with Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri.

Hillary Clinton: Conservatives Can ‘Begin The Healing’ By Admitting Biden Will Become ‘Duly Elected President’

Posted on January 13, 2021 by John Hanson

On Tuesday, failed 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said that the GOP and conservatives can “begin the healing and unifying process” by admitting that Joe Biden “was duly elected president in a free and fair election.”

Clinton wrote on Twitter, “Here’s how elected Republicans and conservative media can begin the healing and unifying process: Accurately state that Joe Biden was duly elected president in a free and fair election.”

Here's how elected Republicans and conservative media can begin the healing and unifying process:

Accurately state that Joe Biden was duly elected president in a free and fair election.

Urge Trump supporters to refrain from further violence.

For a start.

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) January 12, 2021

“Urge Trump supporters to refrain from further violence. For a start,” she added.

Clinton’s Tweet Comes As Democrats Push For Impeachment

Clinton’s comments come as Democrats continue to push another attempt to impeachment President Trump.

Accusing the President of inciting the Capitol Hill riots last week, Democrat leaders plan to meet on Wednesday to consider articles of impeachment.

The single article of impeachment read, “President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of Government. He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transfer of power, and imperiled a coequal branch of Government.”

It added, “He thereby betrayed his trust as President, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.”

The impeachment article was introduced by Democratic House members Reps. David Cicilline of Rhode Island, Ted Lieu of California, and Jamie Raskin of Maryland.

Last week’s attack is cause for grief and outrage. But it should not be cause for shock.

My essay in the @WashingtonPost. https://t.co/6lsNrXH3YD

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) January 11, 2021

Hillary Clinton Still Hasn’t Admitted Trump Won In 2016

The former Secretary of State wants conservatives to admit Joe Biden won the 2020 election, but as recently as 2019, Clinton essentially claimed that the 2016 election was rigged.

On CBS This Morning in September of 2019, Clinton claimed that Trump is an “illegitimate president” and that the election was neither fair nor free.

“I believe he understands that the many varying tactics they used, from voter suppression and voter purging to hacking to the false stories – he knows that – there were just a bunch of different reasons why the election turned out like it did.”

Clinton Published Op-Ed About ‘White Supremacy’

Clinton published an op-ed in the Washington Post on Monday, arguing that pursuing impeachment alone will not “remove white supremacy from America.”

“Trump ran for president on a vision of America where whiteness is valued at the expense of everything else. In the White House, he gave white supremacists, members of the extreme right and conspiracy theorists their most powerful platforms yet, even claiming that there were “very fine people” among the torch-wielding militia members who converged on Charlottesville in 2017,” Clinton wrote.

On January 8, Clinton celebrated President Trump’s personal Twitter account being permanently banned.

https://t.co/lQmZvooFYW

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) January 9, 2021

The post Hillary Clinton: Conservatives Can ‘Begin The Healing’ By Admitting Biden Will Become ‘Duly Elected President’ appeared first on The Political Insider.

Every minute of AOC’s hour-long Instagram video about the pro-Trump insurgency is worth watching

Posted on January 13, 2021 by Marissa Higgins

On Tuesday night, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hopped onto an Instagram live video and shared her experience during the pro-Trump insurgency at the U.S. Capitol last Wednesday. In a moving address straight to followers (of which more than 100,000 people joined in to listen and watch), the progressive lawmaker said she had a “very close encounter” with the rioters and “I thought I was going to die.” She repeated the chilling sentiment later in the hour-long video, saying, “I did not know if I was going to make it to the end of that day alive.” She did not give more details on the encounter, citing security reasons.

What did she give more details on? Her concerns about sheltering with some Republican lawmakers. Why? Because she was afraid some of them might give up her location or enable chances for her to be hurt or kidnapped by insurgents. Let’s dive more into that horrifying possibility, as well as the lawmaker’s discussion of trauma and political nihilism, below.

“I didn’t even feel safe going to that extraction point because there were QAnon and white supremacist members of Congress who I felt would disclose my location and create opportunities to allow me to be hurt,” Ocasio-Cortez stated. She did not explicitly name the colleagues she thought might expose her to danger.

"Let me give you a sneak peek,” she stated in an address to Republican Sens. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz. “You will never be president. You will never command the respect of this country, never. Never. And you should resign.”

Ocasio-Cortez also stressed that the two conservatives essentially cast their votes in an effort to overturn election votes “not out of genuine belief” but instead out of “political ambition.” She also described Donald Trump as a “traitor to our country,” which, of course, he is.

“I don't want to see the Republican Party talk about blue lives ever again,” Ocasio-Cortez said in reference to a Capitol police officer losing their life during the riot. “This was never about safety for them. It was always a slogan. … Because if they actually care about the rule of law, they would speak up when people break the law."

Ocasio-Cortez also spoke intimately about trauma, saying, “You have all of those thoughts where, at the end of your life, these thoughts come rushing to you. That’s what happened to a lot of us on Wednesday. I did not know if I was going to make it to the end of that day alive. And not just in a general sense, but in a very specific sense." She also brought up that in addition to members of Congress, staffers, and even the children of lawmakers, were at the Capitol that day.

On a personal level, Ocasio-Cortez said she found herself sleeping more in the days after the riot, and that, “to me is telling me that my body is going through something and my brain is trying to heal."

People, as usual, were impressed by the progressive’s ability to connect with people—even at 11 PM on a weeknight.

.@AOC just gave an impassioned speech about impeachment to more than 100,000 people on Instagram at 11 o’clock on a Tuesday night. Her natural political skills, spontaneous eloquence and fluency with social media are so striking, especially at a national moment like this.
— Liam Stack (@liamstack) January 13, 2021

AOC is giving a Gettysburg Address level oration over Instagram live right now "White supremacy is doomed to fail... supremacy is a myth, so they resort to violence"
— Prerna Jagadeesh (@PrernaJagadeesh) January 13, 2021

Watching @AOC’s Instagram live and knowing as it happens that it’ll be featured in history books one day as a piece of important oratory of the moment is really something.
— Amanda Litman (@amandalitman) January 13, 2021

And her transparency was, as ever, moving and important.

Turns out the first moment of real human solidarity I've felt in the past 6 traumatizing days is watching @AOC's unbelievably moving instagram live with a bunch of friends and strangers who feel the same way on twitter at 11PM
— Helen Brosnan (@HelenBrosnan) January 13, 2021

Watching @AOC's instagram live helped me finally recognize all of the anger and grief and fear that's become so commonplace that I don't even notice I'm feeling it anymore. I'm really grateful for that.
— Taylor (@taylorjeanjn) January 13, 2021

AOC almost died the other day and got on Instagram Live to talk to us about trauma and what’s actually happening behind closed doors. Her transparency is a gift and will hopefully save lives pic.twitter.com/prLImsgDFT
— ilana kaplan (@lanikaps) January 13, 2021

In speaking about nihilism in politics, Ocasio-Cortez really hit home with an emotional address, saying, “What claim will you have? That you rule over a destroyed society? That the ashes belong to you?" Those are questions every member of the Trump administration should answer.

You can also watch snippets of the live stream on YouTube below.

YouTube Video

Update: This statement from fellow progressive Squad member Rep. Ayanna Pressley’s chief of staff Sarah Groh about realizing panic buttons had reportedly been “torn out” of the Congresswoman's office adds another unsettling and chilling element.

According to Ayanna Pressley’s chief of staff Sarah Groh, the panic buttons in the Congresswoman’s office were all “torn out—the whole unit.” They don’t know why or who did it. https://t.co/MLhxhi7nUp pic.twitter.com/l7wgoHOJKN
— Eoin Higgins (@EoinHiggins_) January 13, 2021

Republicans helped Trump inspire a violent insurrection. They have done nothing to disavow it

Posted on January 12, 2021 by Kerry Eleveld

In the wake of a deadly attack many of them helped incite, Republicans are only continuing their descent into ignominy. The only way out is for them to take responsibility for their actions and actually admit that they helped their mentally unhinged leader—Donald Trump—sic a mob of his foaming-at-the-mouth cultists on U.S. lawmakers at the Capitol last week.

Instead, they have dug in their heels and unleashed a Gatling gun round of finger-pointing at Democrats, who are moving swiftly to hold Trump to account through impeachment charges. Democrats, they claim, are being divisive by trying to protect the country from further abuses by a madman.

The Washington Post writes:

Shortly before convening a conference call of House Republicans on Monday, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) sent a missive asserting that “an impeachment at this time would have the opposite effect of bringing our country together when we need to get America back on a path towards unity and civility.” ...

“After the abhorrent violence we saw last week, our country desperately needs to heal and unify,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said. “I have concerns that impeachment proceedings will only divide us further.”

McCarthy's empty rhetoric about "unity and civility" is particularly precious given his role in perpetrating Trump’s lie that the election was stolen. Not only did he sign on to the GOP legal challenge to the election results and vote to oppose congressional certification after the siege, he also used his platform to push Trump's baseless claims into the ecosphere.

.@GOPLeader Kevin McCarthy was laying the groundwork for the attack on the Capitol for months. 11/5/2020: “President Trump won this election, so everyone who’s listening, do not be quiet. We cannot allow this to happen before our very eyes... join together and let’s stop this.” pic.twitter.com/9Ys6elhUln
— Jesse Lee (@JesseCharlesLee) January 12, 2021

Immediately following the election, McCarthy started pumping Trump's crap to the GOP base. “President Trump won this election, so everyone who’s listening, do not be quiet," McCarthy told Fox News viewers on Nov. 5. "We cannot allow this to happen before our very eyes ... join together and let’s stop this.”

Other GOP lawmakers also bear unique responsibility for helping to foment the deadly violence:

Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama speaking at the MAGA rally last week: “Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass. ... Are you willing to do what it takes to fight for America?"
First-term Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Lauren Boebert of Colorado called the day Republicans’ “1776 moment.”
Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona repeatedly called Joe Biden an "illegitimate usurper" while promoting numerous "Stop the Steal" events. “Be ready to defend the Constitution and the White House,” Gosar counseled in an op-ed titled “Are We Witnessing a Coup d’État?”

There's much much more, and The New York Times has a nice roundup of it.

But the GOP, and particularly its leadership, is continuing to prove that there's no end to how morally bankrupt the party is—not even after they helped inspire a violent coup attempt that cost lives. Just like with Trump, there’s no bottom.