Category: Insurgency

Trump’s legal team is trying to coordinate with Senate Republicans, but Trump is in the way

Posted on by Mark Sumner

Though it may seem as if bad lawyers are an infinite commodity, Donald Trump has spent years testing that theory. Trump’s line of personal attorneys have had a tendency to head off on “extended vacations,” often while handing authorities information that creates a challenge for Trump’s next attorney. In the process of contesting the election alone, Trump sifted the nation to come up with a legal team that was eventually headed by Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell after such legal powerhouses as Corey Lewandowski and Pam Bondi had fallen by the wayside.

The problem with being a Trump attorney isn’t just being forced to defend indefensible positions; it’s having to do so in the way that pleases Trump. That sometimes means not staging a defense in the way what’s most likely to lead to acquittal, and instead doubling down on why Trump was perfectly entitled to commit a crime in the first place. And did it perfectly.

In the case of Trump’s second impeachment, Trump is running through whole sets of attorneys, and he still doesn’t seem to have found one who will do what he wants: use the impeachment trial as another opportunity to encourage violence.

Shortly after the impeachment in the House, Bloomberg reported that Trump was “struggling” to find a team of lawyers to manage his defense before the Senate. Trump’s entire first impeachment defense team, including Jay Sekulow and former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, turned down the opportunity for a repeat performance. Even the time limit on Trump’s long-running arrangement with Pam Bondi seems to have expired; she also opted out.

Potential attorneys are likely to be feeling better these days, now that Senate Republicans have made it clear that when they gave Trump a free pass the first time, they really meant it. With 45 Republicans voting that it’s pointless to move forward with the impeachment, and Republicans threatening to drag the Senate into a months-long recounting of post-election events if a single witness is called, it seems as if the legal team of Nobody, Absent, and Nothing could stage an adequate defense.

The problem is that Trump isn’t happy to just sit there, collect another free pass, and move on. Instead, Trump has been insisting to his attorneys that he wants to use the impeachment trial to put on “evidence” of supposed election fraud.

In other words: Trump wants to use his impeachment trial not to defend himself against charges of inciting a murderous, seditious mob, but to explain why that mob was in the right when it smashed into the Capitol on a hunt for hostages.

That insistence is part of what has made it so difficult for Trump to secure a legal crew. Trump got so upset over the reluctance of his legal team to join in the sedition attempt that he parted ways with five members of his legal team last week. However, The New York Times did show Trump picking up two new attorneys to head his impeachment team: former Pennsylvania District Attorney Bruce Castor, and David Schoen. Schoen was most recently in the public eye as the lead attorney for Roger Stone in his defense against multiple charges related to the Mueller investigation. That would be Stone’s losing case, requiring Trump to get out his pardon pen.

But, as the Times is now reporting, just because Trump has new attorneys doesn’t mean that those attorneys are going to follow him off a cliff. Instead the team is arguing that they should conduct his defense on the lines that the trial itself is unconstitutional.

This claim is also false, but it has serious advantages in getting the results Trump, his legal team, and Senate Republicans want. First, it prevents Republicans from having to conduct a trial on whether Trump engaged in incitement while Trump is actively engaged in more incitement. Second, it lets the Republicans lean back into technical arguments they’ve already made about the legality of impeachment post-term. It’s an argument that lets Republicans vote to acquit Trump while still maintaining that they’re just darn horrified about the insurgency thing.

Which is, of course, the whole reason that Republicans launched the claim that impeaching Trump after they purposely allowed the clock to run out is unconstitutional. It’s certainly not because any of them feel there’s a real constitutional issue, and they know their position breaks with past Senate precedent. It’s a position designed to let them have it both ways: They can claim to be against what Trump did without ever going on record against Trump.

And the only thing that could get in their way … is Trump.

GOP willing to overlook murder of police and desecration of Capitol to show their love for Trump

Posted on by Mark Sumner

Conservative Republicans have tried to dismantle labor unions as long as there have been labor unions. On the other hand, Republicans also long ago made their bet as the “party of law and order,” a position that has glorified every aspect of policing. That combination meant that of all unions, police unions have flourished not just with Republican blessings, but bolstered by racism, anti-immigrant policies, and disdain for public service that defines the GOP. As a result, when police unions make the news, it’s often because they’re defending officers in the shooting of an unarmed Black person, or defending the use of violence against peaceful protesters.

But that’s not the case with a statement that came out from the Capitol Police union on Wednesday. The union isn’t concerned about protecting the actions of some “rogue cop.” They’re outraged over what they see as a betrayal by leadership—at the Capitol police, and in the Pentagon. Testimony by the acting chief of the Capitol Police before the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday, made it clear that leadership knew days in advance that Jan. 6 “would not be like any of the previous protests.” They knew that armed militia groups were coming. They knew white supremacist groups were answering Donald Trump’s call. They knew violence was likely and that Congress was the target.

They knew all that. They just failed to react in a way that would protect lawmakers, or police.

The statement makes it clear that the events of Jan. 6 took a huge toll on the Capitol police. “We have one officer who lost his life as a direct result of the insurrection. Another officer tragically took his own life. Between USCP and our colleagues at the Metropolitan Police Department, we have almost 140 officers injured. I have officers who were not issued helmets prior to the attack who have sustained brain injuries. One officer with two cracked ribs and two smashed spinal discs. One officer is going to lose his eye, and another was stabbed with a metal fence stake.” (On Wednesday, a member of the Metro D.C. Police who fought against insurgents on Jan. 6 also took his own life.)

Understandably, the fury of the union is directed mainly at their own leadership, including former Chief Steven Sund, acting Chief Yogananda Pittman, and Assistant Chief Chad Thomas all of whom it says were aware by Jan. 4 that Trump’s invitation for a “wild” event two days later was likely to result in mass violence. Even so, only 170 police were issued with riot gear and police were not given the chemical weapons or flash bangs that were used against peaceful protesters during Black Lives Matter protests over the summer.

Despite Pittman’s lengthy closed-door testimony on Wednesday, there continues to be confusion about events leading up to the insurgency in which police were overwhelmed by thousands of violent Trump supporters who forced their way into the Capitol. Sund had previously claimed, and Pittman testified, that police leadership requested permission from the police board to alert the National Guard. However, the only member of that board who has not resigned, Architect of the Capitol Brett Blanton, issued his own statement on Wednesday indicating that he was unaware of any such request and that there was no meeting of the police board on the date Pittman indicated. 

There are still dozens of unanswered questions about exactly why police failed to prepare for an event they knew was going to bring thousands of violent, armed extremists to Washington D.C. That’s not just true of actions by the Capitol Police. There are still no answers from Pentagon officials who both restricted the authority of the local guard commander and dithered for hours even as insurgents were hunting hostages in the halls of Congress.

And there’s the biggest question of all: Why was any of this necessary? Why did it take pleas from Washington’s mayor, from the police, and from National Guard leadership to get things moving? Why did the reports of the National Guard being authorized, when they finally came, include only the word that they had been supported by Mike Pence? 

The biggest unanswered question of Jan. 6 is what did Donald Trump do? The House has already impeached Trump for his actions in inciting the seditionists who marched on the Capitol, murdered a police officer, smashed their way into the building, and waged a war on democracy that included deploying pipe bombs and chemical spray. But why, when the images of this insurgency were being broadcast to the White House, did Trump not immediately order the military to provide support to the besieged police? 

Yes, police actions appear to have been confused. Yes, Pentagon officials appear to have weighed the “optics” of sending in forces in a way that’s completely inappropriate. Yes, the complex mess of D.C.’s unique status generated additional steps that made everything move more slowly. None of that should have mattered. Because the moment insurgents broke through the first police line, Donald Trump should have been on the phone to order more support for the badly outnumbered officers at the Capitol. 

He didn’t. He didn’t because, by all accounts, Trump was busy watching in approval. Trump took the time to step out of the White House and tell the people beating down police with thin blue line flags, "We love you, you’re very special.” He did not take the time to provide support to the police.

And that’s the man that the Republican Party didn’t just crown as its leader, it’s the man they are still defending. Still following. Still supporting. The party of law and order is now the party that is willing to “move on” from cop killers and seditionists. To move on from the greatest crime ever committed by any American official. Benghazi was worth no less than 33 hearings, even though none of those hearings ever surfaced a crime. Now, despite the seriousness of the event, Republicans just want to … let it go.

Not because they don’t realize the scale of that crime. But because they still worship that criminal.

There’s one thing that can both help ensure that protecting the nation’s capital isn’t hampered by shifting rules, and break the logjam in the Senate: Sign up to support D. C. statehood.

Timeline of the events leading up to Jan. 6 insurgency shows Trump engaged in multiple coup attempts

Posted on by Mark Sumner

As the second impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump gets underway, House managers will be presenting a case that extends beyond the brief impeachment article to include a number of items that extend beyond the speech Trump delivered on the day of the Capitol invasion. The documents filed along with the impeachment legislation document a number of instances in which Trump paved the way for the insurrection by inflaming crowds over the election and encouraging violence.

But Trump was engaged in multiple other activities that extend beyond those covered in the impeachment documents, but are intimately related to events on Jan. 6. That includes efforts to pressure local officials into illegally altering votes, replacing officials in military and intelligence positions that might have pushed back against violence, and engaging in an effort to throw out the acting attorney general and use the Department of Justice to disrupt the final count of the electoral vote.

Over the weekend, I made a first draft of a timeline showing events leading up to the insurgency on January 6. This version has been updated to include more dates, more events, and many more reasons while Trump should be convicted.

Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results can be broken down into five broad categories:

⚪ Timeline event for purposes of clarification 🔵 Legal challenges on both state and federal level 🟢 Recounts, signature challenges, etc. 🟡 Efforts to suborn perjury from state officials or coerce state legislators 🟠 Reverse coup using government to defy election results 🔴 Overt calls to violence

In this timeline, the legal challenges are given very light treatment. Most of the 62 lawsuits filed by Trump’s legal team—teams, actually—were aimed at overturning the vote in one of six states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The only lawsuit that Trump’s team won out of this whole collection was a ruling on how long voters had to “cure” mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania … which ultimately had no effect on the results in that state. So only a few “highlights” of these challenges are provided in this far-from-complete timeline. In this update, I have included a few events from Trump’s legal team, because they served the same purpose as that Jan. 6 rally—inflaming conspiracy theories, and encouraging Trump supporters to overturn the election through any means.

Timeline

🟡 Nov. 04—A mob of Trump supporters gathers outside the Maricopa County Elections Department offices in Phoenix, Arizona, claiming that Republican votes are not being counted because of “SharpieGate.” First “Stop the Steal” group forms on Facebook.

🔵 Nov. 05—Trump initiates a string of lawsuits, including sending Pam Bondi and Corey Lewandowski to Pennsylvania for threatened legal action.

🟡 Nov. 06—Trump campaign seeks volunteers to engage in election fraud in Pennsylvania by submitting late ballots.

🔵 Nov. 06—Trump lawsuit count in Pennsylvania alone reaches 16, as “garbage” suits proliferate in Nevada, Arizona, and Georgia.

🔴 Nov. 06—Armed QAnon fanatics are arrested outside Philadelphia election center as part of Trump-organized “Stop the Steal” rally.

🔴 Nov. 08—Rudy Giuliani leads the press conference at Four Seasons Total Landscaping. Claims that thousands of dead people voted in Philadelphia.  “Joe Frazier is still voting here—kind of hard, since he died five years ago.” Giuliani also lies about voting machines and election officials while claiming that Trump won the state.

🟠 Nov. 09—Trump replaces Secretary of Defense Mark Esper for failing to support Trump’s efforts to bring active duty military into Washington, D.C., during Black Lives Matter protests.

🟠 Nov. 10—Trump shuffles leadership at Pentagon, bringing loyalists to critical positions.

🟠 Nov. 10—William Barr authorizes U.S. attorneys to pursue false claims of election fraud, triggering resignation of DOJ’s Election Crimes Branch, Richard Pilger.

🟠 Nov. 10—Mike Pompeo declares there will be a ”smooth transition to a second Trump administration.”

🟡 Nov. 10—Trump pressures Georgia Senate candidates Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue to support his claims of election fraud in that state, or be cut off from his support in their Senate runoffs.

🔴 Nov. 11—Experts warn that Trump’s lies about the election are sending followers “spiraling” toward violence; white supremacist groups boil in confusion.

🔵 Nov. 12—Trump campaign sues to stop vote count in Georgia counties with the highest numbers of Black voters.

🔵 Nov. 12—Trump lawsuits in Arizona founder, as lawyers withdraw and the Trump team asks a judge to seal the evidence.

🟠 Nov. 12—Trump continues shuffling chairs at Pentagon, moving former Devin Nunes aide Kash Patel into the position of chief of staff, and Michael Flynn protégé Ezra Cohen-Watnick into the role of undersecretary for intelligence.

🔴 Nov. 14—Trump stages “Million MAGA March” in Washington, D.C., including a “Stop the Steal” rally and thousands of white supremacist extremists descend upon the capital city in a preview of the  Jan. 6 insurgency. Violence erupts among MAGA marchers, as groups including Proud Boys, American Guard, and Oath Keepers instigate assaults … as Trump sent statements of encouragement.

🟡 Nov. 16—Lindsey Graham calls Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, asks him to throw out all absentee ballots.

🔵 Nov. 16—Trump’s legal team is forced to retract a major portion of Pennsylvania lawsuit after being caught in a lie.

🟠 Nov. 17—Trump fires Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency chief Christopher Krebs after Krebs declares that election was “most secure” in the nation’s history and denies there is any evidence of election fraud.

🟢 Nov. 17—Georgia conducts a hand recount of ballots, confirming Biden’s victory there.

🟢 Nov. 18—Trump demands recount of the two most Democratic counties in Wisconsin.

🔴 Nov. 18—Arizona secretary of state releases a statement in response to continued threats of violence.

🟡 Nov. 19—Trump calls members of thee Wayne County, Michigan Board of Canvassers in attempt to prevent certification of votes from Detroit.

🔵 Nov. 19—Sidney Powell calls for votes to be overturned in all states Biden won as Trump “exerts full power of his office” to reverse election.

🔴 Nov. 20—A Michigan militia plot to takeover state capital, execute governor, is revealed. Trump calls for MAGA revolt.

🟡 Nov 20—Trump summons Michigan Speaker of the House Lee Chatfield and state Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey to the White House in an effort to persuade them to block certification of votes in Wayne County.

🔵 Nov. 25—Trump and Pennsylvania GOP leaders stage a “Gettysburg conference,” as Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis promote list of conspiracy theories to be incorporated into new lawsuit.

🟡 Nov. 30—Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp reminds Trump that election fraud is illegal after Trump posts series of tweets attempting to get Kemp to overturn election results.

🟢 Nov. 30—Wisconsin conducts a recount in only the two most heavily Democratic counties (the only counties where Trump would pay for it). Biden picks up 87 votes.

🟡 Nov. 30—Rudy Giuliani appears before the Arizona legislature, urging them to throw out election results and name a slate of Trump electors.

🟠 Dec. 02—Recently pardoned Michael Flynn takes out a full-page ad in The Washington Post calling on Trump to overturn civilian government and institute “limited martial law.”

🟡 Dec 05—Trump calls Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp to demand that he hold a second election.

🟠 Dec. 05—Kash Patel blocks Pentagon and intelligence officials from sharing data with Biden’s team.

🟢 Dec. 07—Georgia conducts a machine recount and audit of votes.

🔴 Dec. 07—“Stop the Steal” protests funded by the Trump campaign continue to bring out armed extremists across the nation.

🔵 Dec. 08—The Supreme Court refuses to hear Trump’s Pennsylvania challenge.

🟠 Dec. 08—Republican leaders in Congress cooperate with Trump to block Joe Biden from access to information and funds needed for transition.

🔵 Dec. 09—Michigan Supreme Court rejects a request for a “special master” to take control of ballots and order a third-party recount in Detroit in narrow 4-3 decision.

🟡 Dec. 10—Trump threatens Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr after Carr defends integrity of Raffensperger.

🔵 Dec. 11—The Supreme Court rejects a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, that attempts to overturn the vote in four other states. That lawsuit was supported by other Republican attorneys general, and by 126 Republican members of the House.

🟠 Dec 11—Trump plans to insert Kash Patel as deputy to CIA Director Gina Haspel, and then fire Haspel, making Patel acting director. The plan falls apart when Haspel threatens to resign and reveal everything that’s been going on.

🔴 Dec. 12—Texas Republicans respond to failure of seditious suit with calls for secession.

🟡 Dec. 13—Trump once again claims that he won the election “overwhelmingly,” and says there was “massive fraud.” He claims that Democrats voted two, three, or four times, and declares that he will “never give up.”

🔴 Dec. 13—“Stop the Steal” rallies continue to be accompanied by violence across the country as Trump fanatics swear to never surrender.

🟠 Dec. 13—House Republicans sign onto plan to nullify election if the Electoral College votes for Biden.

⚪ Dec. 14—The Electoral College votes to deliver victory to Joe Biden.

🔴 Dec. 14—Michigan Republicans propose a plan to overturn electoral vote and send their own slate of electors to Congress, even it requires violence.

🔵 Dec. 14—Wisconsin Supreme Court tosses Trump’s lawsuit seeking to have 221,000 voters disenfranchised, in a narrow 4-3 decision.

🟠 Dec. 15—Trump brings new acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen to White House, insists he appoint special investigators for election fraud, and announce support of Trump’s lawsuits. Rosen refuses.

🟢 Dec. 17—Michigan conducts a hand recount of votes in Antrim County, in response to Sidney Powell’s “Kraken” lawsuit. Totals change by just a dozen votes.

🔴 Dec. 17—The Proud Boys stage attacks on Black churches in Washington, D.C., in connection with a “Stop the Steal” gathering.

🟠 Dec. 18—Senate Republicans stage a hearing to promote Trump’s claims of election fraud, including disinformation and testimony from witnesses who had already had their claims thrown out of court.

🟠 Dec. 18—Michael Flynn and Sidney Powell meet with Trump and urge him to move forward on Flynn’s plan to institute martial law and force a “do-over” election where Trump sets the rules. Trump considers bypassing DOJ to make Powell special prosecutor in charge of a sweeping elections investigation.

🔴 Dec. 19—“Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” tweets Trump. “Be there, will be wild!”

🔴 Dec. 21—Trump supporters storm the Oregon Capitol, force their way past police, and enter the Capitol building.

🟡 Dec. 23—Trump calls Georgia’s lead elections investigator and insists that he “find the fraud” in a lengthy conversation where he complained about other officials. Trump declares that the investigator would be a “national hero” if he overturns Georgia’s vote.

🟡 Dec. 23—Trump calls Raffensperger “an enemy of the people” for refusing to overturn the election.

🟡 Dec. 29—Raffensperger announces that the investigator has found no sign of fraud.

🟠 Dec. 30—Sen. Josh Hawley announces he will join House Republicans in objecting to electoral votes, ensuring that counting ceremony will take hours longer than necessary, and inflaming the importance of Jan. 6.

🟠 Dec. 31—Trump abruptly departs his News Years events at Mar-a-Lago to make an early return to Washington, D.C. Likely related to plans being made with Clark.

🟠 Jan. 01—DOJ officials warn B.J. Pak, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, that Trump is “obsessing” about his office and may take actions to replace him.

🟠 Jan. 02—DOJ attorney Jeffrey Clark meets with Trump. The two develop a plan in which Trump will replace acting AG Rosen with Clark, and Clark will then move forward to inform Georgia legislators that the DOJ is investigating serious election fraud in the state; simultaneously, Clark will file suit in effort to prevent Congress from counting electoral votes on Jan 6.

🟡 Jan. 02—Trump calls Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, asks him to “find” votes. He also warns that U.S. attorney B.J. Pak is a “never-Trumper” who won’t support him. The recording surfaces the next day, after a member of the secretary of state’s office releases recording due to Trump’s continued complaints about Raffensperger following the call.

🟠 Jan. 03—The recording drops just hours before Rosen and Clark meet with Trump and White House attorney Pat Cipollone. With the tape causing problems, Cippollone convinces Trump not to execute Clark’s plan.

🔴 Jan. 04—Trump attends a “Stop the Steal” rally in Georgia. “Democrats are trying to steal the White House … They’re not taking this White House. We’re going to fight like hell, I’ll tell you right now.“

⚪ Jan. 04— Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund asks House and Senate sergeants at arms for permission to place the D.C. National Guard on alert. His request is denied.

🔴 Jan. 05— Trump tweets that, “Washington is being inundated with people who don’t want to see an election victory stolen by emboldened Radical Left Democrats. Our Country has had enough, they won’t take it anymore!”

🔴 Jan. 05—Lauren Boebert tweets “Remember these next 48 hours. These are some of the most important days in American history.” Multiple lawmakers report seeing Boebert provide tours to a “large group,” which Boebert denies.

🔴 Jan. 05—Multiple  groups of Trump supporters post messages on social media endorsing use of force the following day. “If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then be prepared to accept barbarism.”

⚪ Jan. 05—Georgia Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff win both of the state’s Senate seats in runoff election, giving Democrats control of the Senate.

🔴 January 06

  • 7:30 AM—Lauren Boebert tweets “Today is 1776.”
  • 8:17 AM— Trump once again tweets lies about election fraud. "States want to correct their votes, which they now know were based on irregularities and fraud, plus corrupt process never received legislative approval. All Mike Pence has to do is send them back to the States, AND WE WIN. Do it Mike, this is a time for extreme courage!"
  • 10:51 AM—Speaking at the “Stop the Steal” rally immediately before the insurgency, Rudy Giuliani repeats lies about the election being stolen, calls the electoral ballots “fraudulent” and claims that 10% of votes were changed by voting machines. "Let's have a trial by combat.”
  • 12:15 PM—In his speech before the crowd, Trump tells them “We are going to have to fight much harder.” Trump repeats lies about the election, calls opponents criminals, and repeatedly attacks Pence for being weak. Trump tells crowd that the election outcome is an “egregious assault on our democracy,” and promises he will walk to Capitol with them. “You have to show strength,” says Trump. 
  • 12:30 PM—Following Trump’s call to march on the Capitol, supporters stream away even though Trump is still speaking. 
  • 12:49 PM—Police are notified of explosive devices outside both DNC and RNC headquarters.
  • 12:53 PM—Trump supporters confront small group of police at first of four temporary barriers. After a few minutes of shouting at police, Trump supporters push the barrier out of the way, pushing it into police and trampling over the fallen barrier.
  • 1:00 PM—Mike Pence and senators walk into House Chamber. Nancy Pelosi gavels the session to order at 1:03.
  • 1:09 PM—Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund asks House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving and Senate Sergeant at Arms Michael Stenger to declare an emergency and call for deployment of the National Guard. Irving and Stenger promise to make the call. However, Stenger fails to forward the request.
  • 1:10 PM—Trump finishes his speech after repeating calls to march on the Capitol. The reminder of his crowd begins moving toward the the Capitol building. At about the same time, a group of militia pull out bear spray and force Capitol Police back as fences one the west side of the Capitol are breached.
  • 1:12 PM—Ted Cruz objects to the counting of electoral votes from Arizona. With that objection, House and Senate members move back to their own chambers for two hours of debate.
  • 1:13 PM—Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund requests immediate assistance from the D.C. National Guard.
  • 1:15 PM—Insurgents climb scaffolding in front of the Capitol.
  • 1:17 PM—Lauren Boebert tweets “We are locked in the House Chambers.”
  • 1:18 PM—Lauren Boebert tweets “The Speaker has been removed from the Chambers.”
  • 1:34 PM—Phone call between Pentagon leaders and Washington D. C. Mayor Muriel Bowser.
  • 1:49 PM—Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund makes direct call to D.C. National Guard commander William Walker.
  • 1:58 PM—Police remove a barrier on the east side of the Capitol following a brawl with insurgents and more use of pepper spray by militia.
  • 1:59 PM—Insurgents push to the top of the stairs and begin hammering on the doors and windows of the Capitol.
  • 2:10 PM—Insurgents on west side rush police on the steps and reach doors on that side. Metro D.C. police take up position in tunnel beneath House.
  • 2:11 PM—Insurgents enter Capitol.

🟡 Jan. 09— B.J. Pak resigns.

🔴 Jan. 15—MyPillow founder Mike Lindell visits White House with papers urging Trump to carry through with Flynn’s plan for martial law.

⚪ Jan. 20—Joe Biden inaugurated as 46th president of the United States.

Watch Florida Republican try to explain why he thinks Trump impeachment trial is ‘stupid’

Posted on (Updated by Marissa Higgins

Appearing on Fox News Sunday to chat with host Chris Wallace, Sen. Marco Rubio delved into his feelings on former President Donald Trump. What about Trump, specifically? Oh, just the articles of impeachment against him. In a word, Rubio said he finds the trial “stupid.”

In a very slightly more eloquent attempt to express himself, Rubio said he feels, “We already have a flaming fire in this country,” and that a trial would amount to “a bunch of gasoline.” Basically, just another way of arguing that a trial would rupture unity efforts, even though as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi argued last week, ignoring all that’s gone is actually what is more likely to sow division in the country. Why? Because we need accountability. 

As of Sunday morning, at least one Republican sees the impeachment trial differently than Rubio, however. We can check out more of what Rubio said below, as well as what one of his peers in the Senate argued.

Rubio said he does think Trump “bears responsibility for some of what happened” and that it was “certainly a foreseeable consequence of everything that was going on.” It would be fascinating to hear what Rubio qualifies as “some” of what happened when a group of pro-Trump rioters surged into the U.S. Capitol and effectively terrorized elected officials. Rubio, instead, stressed he thinks that is “separate” from the idea of revisiting it and “stirring” it up. 

Here’s that clip.

Marco Rubio acknowledges Trump "bears responsibility" for the Capitol insurrection, but insists holding him accountable with an impeachment trial is the wrong move because it'll "stir up" the country again pic.twitter.com/egtvNAgrS8

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 24, 2021

Also related to the Trump family, Wallace asked Rubio how he feels about whispers that Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, may run for a senate seat in Florida. Given that Rubio is up for reelection in 2022, a primary challenge is considerably important. Rubio, however, dodged the meat of the question by declaring that he doesn't “really get into the parlor games of Washington.”

He did say that if he wants to be “back in the U.S Senate, I have to earn that every six years” and that he doesn’t own his seat. Which is true, but would ring as a touch more meaningful if Florida didn’t have rampant voter suppression issues. 

Wallace also spoke to Sen. Mitt Romney about the impeachment trial, posing the same question to both Republicans. Did they agree with fellow Republicans who argued that the trial should be thrown out under the alleged basis that it’s unconstitutional to convict a former president? Rubio said yes, he’d definitely vote to nix the trial, but Romney thinks the proceedings are constitutionally solid. (Which, of course, they are.)

“if you look at the preponderance of the legal opinion by scholars over the years,” Romney explained, “the preponderance of opinion is that yes, an impeachment trial is appropriate after someone leaves office.” Romney, who did vote to convict in the first trial, however, did not say how he would vote either way a second time, noting they have yet to actually hear arguments and evidence from both sides. 

Trump’s second impeachment is about more than you think

Posted on by Mark Sumner

When the House acted swiftly to impeach Donald Trump for a second time on Jan. 13, the actual Articles of Impeachment were shockingly brief. With just five pages, the first of which is completely taken up with the names of sponsors who signed onto the resolution, the gist of the single article is that Trump repeatedly issued false statements that inflamed the crowd and incited insurgents on Jan. 6. The statements cited in the resolution include Trump’s oft-repeated claim that “we won this election, and we won it by a landslide” and more aggressive statements like “if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

Those statements, which Trump repeated at the rally he held shortly before the insurgents swarmed up the steps of the Capitol, may seem scant. And arguments over whether they are really incitement to violence may seem to allow Republicans a lot of wiggle room when it comes to their vote. 

But the article is not everything that House members will be bringing to the Senate when they come for Trump’s trial on Feb. 8.

In addition to the article itself, there are considerably more detailed supporting documents. These documents don’t just cite the statements that Trump made on the morning of the assault on the Capitol, they cover the whole period following the election and show how Trump laid the groundwork for violence. That means that things like the phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and tweets that Trump put out threatening any officials who got in his way, are fully covered. 

The document also details events on Jan. 6, including statements by Rudy Giuliani urging the crowd to have “have trial by combat,” and Donald Trump, Jr. warning Congress that “we’re coming for you.” And it points out how, when Trump got up to speak, he called out specific legislators as targets for the crowd’s hate before falsely telling them that he was going to walk up Pennsylvania Ave. with them.

The document is far from comprehensive. It doesn’t contain a full list of the 62 legal actions filed by Trump’s team. It doesn’t cover all the changes Trump made at the Pentagon following the election. It doesn’t discuss the scheme to sub in a Devin Nunes aide as head of the CIA. It doesn’t cover Michael Flynn’s plan to implement “partial martial law” or DOJ attorney Jeffrey Clark’s scheme to use the Justice Department to interfere in counting the electoral vote. 

But there is more than enough in the provided documents to show that the crowd that pushed through police to hunt hostages in the halls of Congress wasn’t just inflamed by a few offhand words Trump delivered on that Wednesday morning. The insurgency was the result of weeks of incitement and of planning by both Trump and other members of his team. It was neither spontaneous nor an accident. It was an attempted coup.

And members of a failed coup should expect to pay a price.

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.

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

Posted on 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

GOP lawmaker’s tweet about Nancy Pelosi during riot at U.S. Capitol sparks calls for her resignation

Posted on by Marissa Higgins

Just over one week ago, Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert went viral because of a video she sent out to Twitter in which she appeared to be strutting around Washington, D.C., with a Glock handgun. (A spokesperson for Boebert later clarified that the lawmaker was not actually carrying the gun throughout the video shoot.) Since then, the pro-Trump Colorado representative has gone viral for an even more nefarious reason. In fact, this isn’t even just a head-scratching digital ad. Many of her colleagues are calling for Boebert’s resignation over her behavior both before, and during, the pro-Trump insurgency against the U.S. Capitol last Wednesday.

Now, as a quick review, Congress was set to vote to certify the Electoral College vote for President-elect Joe Biden’s win. Boebert, who has fully leaned into efforts to overturn the presidential election results, formally objected. That morning, before the insurgency, she tweeted: “Today is 1776.” What she tweeted while rioters were actually at the Capitol is what’s really chilling.

Here is the 1776 tweet.

Today is 1776.

— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) January 6, 2021

While pro-Trump insurgents were descending upon the Capitol, many lawmakers did take to Twitter. Boebert joined them … and decided to tweet out that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had been removed from the House Chambers. Though she did not specify where Pelosi had been moved to, obviously this tweet stunned countless people. After all, the viral photo of a man with his foot up on Pelosi’s desk is not quick to leave any of our minds soon. Nor is the report of a man who traveled from Colorado to Washington, D.C. who was arrested for allegedly making threats against Pelosi. There are reports that some who invaded the Capitol were searching for not only Pelosi but also Vice President Mike Pence and Schumer. 

So it’s safe to say Boebert’s tweets were both chilling and concerning.

The Speaker has been removed from the chambers.

— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) January 6, 2021

Boebert, however, only doubled down in releasing a statement on the calls for her resignation, saying in part, “We should take Democrats at their word when they say never let a crisis go to waste. Their hypocrisy is on full display with talks of impeachment, censure and other ways to punish Republicans for false accusations of inciting the type of violence they have so frequently and transparently supported in the past.”

In terms of her choice to tweet about Pelosi, Boebert argued, “They accuse me of live-tweeting the Speaker’s presence after she had been safely removed from the Capitol, as if I was revealing some big secret, when in fact this removal was also being broadcast on TV.”

She suggested that “leading Democrats” have encouraged “mob violence,” including former President Barack Obama and President-elect Joe Biden. She also accused a number of celebrities of doing the same, for who knows what reason, including Madonna and Johnny Depp.

And earlier Tuesday, she’s back with a pseudo unity call on Twitter.

Calling 75,000,000 Americans domestic terrorists is not unity.

— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) January 12, 2021

There are currently 211 House members, and 28 senators who are on record supporting impeachment & removal, and over 200 House members have cosponsored the impeachment resolution. Regardless of where your members of Congress stand, please send them a letter.

‘Lies, lies, lies’: Arnold Schwarzenegger’s speech about Trump and fellow Republicans goes viral

Posted on (Updated by Marissa Higgins

In the days since a group of pro-Trump insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., sending elected officials into temporary hiding and the nation into a period of shock and horror, a number of Republicans have spoken out against Donald Trump. Whether they’ve criticized his endless insistence that he actually won the 2020 presidential election (he didn’t), called for Trump to resign, both long-standing critics and newly vocalized GOP members are speaking out against Trump.

In a moving, personal video, former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger succinctly described Trump as a “failed leader” and someone who “will soon be as irrelevant as an old tweet.” Direct jabs aside, however, Schwarzenegger also dove deep into serious matters and discussed intergenerational trauma, personal examples from his youth in Austria, and directed a very important message to not only Trump but the Republicans who enabled him. He also wished “great success” to President-elect Joe Biden for when he takes office in less than a month. Let’s check out the video below.

First, in reference to Trump, Schwarzenegger states, “President Trump sought to overturn the results of an election. He sought a coup by misleading people with lies. He will go down in history as the worst president ever. The good thing is he will soon be as irrelevant as an old tweet.” Obviously, the extra layer of zing here is that Twitter (as well as a handful of other social media platforms) recently permanently suspended Trump from their platforms.

On a personal note, Schwarzenegger discussed growing up in the long-term wake of Kristallnacht (also known as the Night of Broken Glass). Schwarzenegger described Kristallnacht as “a night of rampage against the Jews carried out in 1938 by the Nazi equivalent of the Proud Boys,” and said the insurgent’s attack on the Capitol last Wednesday was “the Day of Broken Glass right here in the United States. But the mob did not just shatter the windows of the Capitol. They shattered the ideas we took for granted [and] trampled the very principles on which our country was founded.”

Schwarzenegger talked about how intergenerational trauma (though he didn’t use that term) can affect an entire society. In his case, Schwarzenegger described being a child and watching his father come home drunk once or twice a week, hitting and scaring his mother. He said it felt normal because he knew it happened at neighbors' houses, too. Why? According to Schwarzenegger, this behavior tied to collective guilt and horror after World War II, saying these men were “in emotional pain for what they saw or did.” In his words, he grew up “surrounded by broken men drinking away the guilt over their participation in the most evil regime in history."

“It all started with lies, lies, lies, and intolerance,” Schwarzenegger stated. “Being from Europe I’ve seen firsthand how bad things can spin out of control.”

In terms of his fellow Republicans, Schwarzenegger called out those who “enabled” Trump’s “lies and his treachery.” He also quoted former President Teddy Roosevelt to them, saying, “Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president.”

“To those who think they can overturn the United States constitution, know this: You will never win,” he stated, asking for the people responsible for the attack on the U.S. Capitol to be held accountable. 

Here’s the video on Twitter, which has garnered more than 6 million views at the time of writing. It’s about seven minutes long, but honestly, is worth the full watch.

My message to my fellow Americans and friends around the world following this week's attack on the Capitol. pic.twitter.com/blOy35LWJ5

— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) January 10, 2021

You can watch the full video on his YouTube channel below.

YouTube Video

There are currently 159 House members, and 24 senators who are on record supporting impeachment & removal. Regardless of where your members of Congress stand, please send them a letter.