Category: Insurrection

Pelosi signs Trump articles of impeachment ‘sadly, with heart broken’

Posted on (Updated by Joan McCarter

Following the House's 232-197 vote to impeach Donald Trump (again), this time for inciting an insurrection, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke at the engrossment ceremony during which the articles were signed. Trump has now officially made history as the most impeached president and for having gained the most votes for impeachment from members of his own party. Congratulations, Donald. You’re singular.

“Today, in a bipartisan way, the House demonstrated that no one is above the law, not even the President of the United State,” Pelosi said. ”Donald Trump is a clear and present danger to our country,” Pelosi said, adding she was signing the resolution “sadly, with heart broken.”

Senate Majority Leader (for the next week or so) Mitch McConnell declined to agree to bring the Senate back early to begin Trump's trial. “Even if the Senate process were to begin this week and move promptly, no final verdict would be reached until after President Trump had left office,“ he said. “This is not a decision I am making; it is a fact.“ It is absolutely a decision he is making. It is within his power, along with incoming Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, to do so. Schumer pointed that out in his statement. “A Senate trial can begin immediately, with agreement from the current Senate Majority Leader to reconvene the Senate for an emergency session, or it will begin after January 19th," Schumer said. "But make no mistake, there will be an impeachment trial in the United States Senate; there will be a vote on convicting the president for high crimes and misdemeanors; and if the president is convicted, there will be a vote on barring him from running again."

"The president of the United States incited a violent mob against the duly elected government of the United States in a vicious, depraved and desperate attempt to remain in power," Schumer continued. "For the sake of our democracy, it cannot and must not be tolerated, excused, or go unpunished."

Republicans ditch Mitch, because Trump is their one true love

Posted on by kos

Once upon a time, the Republican establishment made a Faustian bargain with the ignorant, racist rabble that makes up the conservative base, and it’s now coming back to bite them. Of the 74 million people who voted for Donald Trump in 2020, a huge chunk of them—the dangerous, conspiracy theory-believing, radicalized populist right—don’t care for Republicans. Their allegiance is to one man: a cult of Trump. 

First and foremost, after everything that has happened—the nearly 400,000 dead from COVID, the Capitol insurrection, the refusal to accept democracy, the bullying and deplorable behavior—the Republican base still loves its Donald Trump. 

Trump’s job approvals are currently at their lowest levels ever in Civiqs polling history—40% approve, while 57% disapprove. Yet most of that drop is among independents. Republicans are, for the most part, holding firm: Trump’s job approval among Republicans was 91-7 on Election Day, and 88-8 today.

And despite that small erosion in job approvals, Trump’s favorability ratings among Republicans is barely budging, from 91% favorable and 7% unfavorable on Election Day, to 90-9 today. Sheesh. 

Civiqs Results

It’s safe to say that despite his unprecedented assault on American democracy, self-identified Republicans aren’t jumping ship. They are slightly less impressed with the job that he is doing, but that’s all cool! They still think he’s the best. 

Now compare that to Republican sentiment for the Republican Party:

Civiqs Results

Those same Republicans approved of the GOP by a 82-9 margin on Election Day. Today’s 64-21 margin is a net 30-point drop. Those are Republicans upset that the party, generically, isn’t “fighting” hard enough to upend the results of the election. 

Now look at Mitch McConnell: 

Civiqs Results

Holy crap! McConnell went from a 70-13 favorable rating among Republicans on Election Day, to just 25-49% favorables today! I’ll do the math for you—that’s an 81-point net drop. 

As you can see on the graph, the collapse came in two waves—the first after McConnell finally recognized Biden’s victory (after Vladmir Putin had done so and apparently given the go-ahead), and then after the failed insurrection at the Capitol, when McConnell refused to join Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ted Cruz of Texas to contest the Arizona and Pennsylvania electors. 

Meanwhile, who was tops on the insurrectionists’ murder list? Vice President Mike Pence. Let’s look at this numbers: 

Civiqs Results

Pence’s 91-6% favorability rating on Election Day was in line with Trump’s 91-7. And Republicans mostly stuck with him while Pence humored Trump’s electoral delusions. But the attack on the Capitol was fueled, in large part, with anger at Pence’s refusal to join in a coup attempt while certifying the Electoral College vote. And the reaction was immediate, as you can see from the chart above, down a net 48 points to a 61-24 favorability rating today, 

To summarize:  

Net favorability

(republicans)

Election Day Today change Donald Trump Republican Party Mitch McConnell Mike Pence
+84 +81 -3
+73 +43 -30
+57 -24 -81
+85 +37 -48

Once again, Donald Trump is the favorite thing among Republicans. They barely budged off him. The Republican Party has suffered a steep drop, but not as steep as the second- and third-highest ranked Republicans. The party might still be seen as belonging to Trump himself, limiting the damage. 

McConnell has always been distrusted by Republicans, for reasons that are unfathomable to me. Look at all the Supreme Court seats he stole for the GOP! Perhaps it’s like El Chapo Trap House-style hatred for Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi—when you are on the fringe, you are never going to be happy with what any legislative chamber’s leader can accomplish in our current system. And while McConnell had earned some goodwill among Republicans for his defense of Trump during the first impeachment trial, his refusal to sign on to the election challenges eliminated all of that. 

But McConnell is easy to hate, and Republicans love to hate him. This isn’t the first time he’s been underwater with Republicans in the three years we’ve tracked him: 

Civiqs Results

Pence, on the other hand, is a reliably conservative Republican stalwart, loyal to a fault to Donald Trump. His Election Day favorables with Republicans actually exceeded Trump’s by a point. His drop in support is directly attributable to his refusal to join the coup attempt.

If Senate Republicans actually provide the votes for conviction, these numbers will be scrambled yet again. Who knows how Trump’s de-platforming will affect his ability to control his party. Will the nascent Lynn Cheney/Lincoln Project faction of the GOP gain traction? The situation is volatile. 

But as of now, the GOP is very much Trump’s Party. 

Traitor to democracy was just impeached. Again

Posted on (Updated by Joan McCarter

Donald Trump has always been obsessed with his place in history. It’s now cemented: no other occupant of the Oval Office achieved the distinction of being impeached twice for high crimes and misdemeanors. The vote was 232-197. Ten Republicans joined Democrats in making this historic action bipartisan.

The articles brought against him read, in part: 

On January 6, 2021, pursuant to the 12th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, the Vice President of the United States, the House of Representatives, and the Senate met at the United States Capitol for a Joint Session of Congress to count the votes of the Electoral College. [...] Shortly before the Joint Session commenced, President Trump, addressed a crowd at the Ellipse in Washington, DC. There, he reiterated false claims that "we won this election, and we won it by a landslide''. He also willfully made statements that, in context, encouraged—and foreseeably resulted in—lawless action at the Capitol, such as: "if you don't fight like hell you're not going to have a country anymore''. […]

In all this, 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 transition of power, and imperiled a coequal branch of Government. He thereby betrayed his trust as President, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.

Wherefore, Donald John Trump, by such conduct, has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to national security, democracy, and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office, and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with self-governance and the rule of law. Donald John Trump thus warrants impeachment and trial, removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States.

QAnon congresswoman is really trying to get someone killed with her latest incitement

Posted on by Laura Clawson

Ten days after joining Congress, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene continues building the case for her removal from the House of Representatives. In the wake of the violent attack on the Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump trying to keep Congress from formalizing his loss to President-elect Joe Biden, Greene tweeted out another incitement to violence.

“These Democrats are the enemies to the American people who are leading the impeachment witch hunt against President Trump,” Greene tweeted Wednesday. “AGAIN!”

Then, ominously, “They will be held accountable.”

Enemies to the American people who will be held accountable, huh? That sounds like a call to violence from a member of Congress who described Jan. 6 as a “1776 moment.” When you have spent months trying to overturn an election and then compared the day on which a violent attack on the Capitol was planned to the American Revolution, you don’t get the benefit of the doubt on “enemies of the people” who “will be held accountable.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene is dangerous and she’s reveling in it. She’s positioning herself as some kind of brave freedom fighter, but she’s standing on the sidelines, in a position of privilege, egging others on to do her dirty work. She’s joined Trump in spending months working to convince his followers that the election was stolen—every single fact to the contrary—and now she’s trying to use that belief to get people killed. To get elected Democrats killed in a larger coup attempt.

She needs to go before (more) people are killed, not after.

Republican congresswoman just tweeted that Democrats are "enemies to the American people" and said, "They will be held accountable." That seems very...incitement-y. pic.twitter.com/Sj6o60zDhH

— Eric Umansky (@ericuman) January 13, 2021

This week on The Brief: Impeachment round two, more COVID-19 relief, ending the filibuster

Posted on by Dorothy He

This week, hosts Markos Moulitsas and Kerry Eleveld were joined on The Brief by two guests: Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, who talked about the attempted terrorist coup at the Capitol, another economic stimulus package for coronavirus relief, and priorities under the Biden administration; and Adam Jentleson, former Deputy Chief of Staff to former Sen. Harry Reid and author of the new book “Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern Senate,” who shared his thoughts on the shifting makeup of the Senate, the emergence of a new centrist Republican contingent in Congress, and ending the filibuster.

Sen. Schatz kicked off the episode by reflecting on last week’s attempted violent coup by Trump supporters and discussing what’s at stake as Democrats move forward with impeachment proceedings and welcome Joe Biden as the new president. In the aftermath of last week’s violence in the Capitol, Schatz emerged with an even stronger resolve to ensure that democratic processes would continue as normal in the face of threats and other acts of intimidation, saying, “We weren’t going to allow an attempted insurrection to intimidate us or to prevent us from discharging our constitutional duties.”

On priorities, Schatz is passionate about climate action, but he believes a COVID-19 relief package is the most crucial priority at this time—which is especially important for the millions of Americans who are jobless and struggling to make ends meet. He also believes that it is not contradictory for Congress to work on impeachment and also help the Biden administration carry out its policy goals within the first few months of his presidency:

I guess I just want to reject as publicly as I can this premise that the Senate can or should only do one thing at a time. The amount of damage that has been done to American institutions, and to Americans, is just too vast for to say, ‘Well, I mean, can we just fit that into a reconciliation bill? I don’t know.’ And the framing, even among liberals, has always been sort of that Rahm Emanuel conversation with Barack Obama: Do you want to do healthcare, or do you want to do immigration, or do you want to do climate, and in what order, because you know, you’ve only have so much political capital you can spend? … I really do think that we should reject that thinking.

In thinking about the impeachment process and passing legislation during the next four years under the Biden administration, Schatz also criticized another roadblock that has been normalized, which is the slow pace of passing legislation — making Congress less efficient: “Our inability to process legislation quickly is a huge part of the problem in the United State Senate.”

Next, the pair welcomed Jentleson onto the show, a veteran U.S. Senate staffer who weighed in on what the new chamber dynamic will like be now that Democrats have regained the majority after last week’s victories in the Georgia runoffs. But even with the majority, Democrats could find themselves obstructed due to the filibuster. To Markos’ question about whether or not Republicans might join in to help bring an end to the filibuster, Jentleson said:

You can sort of see this centrist party taking shape before our eyes, and mainly taking shape in the Senate, where you have Murkowski, Collins … Romney, and on our side, Manchin and King, and the thing about majority rule is that it would actually dramatically empower that group of centrist Republicans. That’s, you know, not my goal here. But it is still a fact that in a majority-rule Senate, those people, like Murkowski, are far more powerful than they would be in a sixty-vote Senate. In a sixty-vote Senate, they’re just one faction among many that you’d have to assemble to get to sixty. In a majority-vote Senate, they are the ones straddling that threshold, and they’ll be the kingmakers on every single bill.

When a minority of the Senate represents as little as 11% of the U.S. population, Jentleson emphasized, the filibuster process can result in particularly skewed policy results. Even the framers of the Constitution understood this:

Fundamentally, the problem that we face, and the reason Democrats are going to face obstruction from Republicans—and the reason that Biden’s agenda is likely to be blocked—is that Republicans will simply use this power to force a sixty-vote hurdle and block everything the Democrats want to do. And so reforming all the hours, and all that stuff, I don’t oppose it. But it doesn’t fix the fundamental problem—which is taking away the power from the minority to block the majority from doing anything … The reason that is such an important dynamic is that we live in such a polarized environment where … once side succeeds by making the other fail.

Ironically, this is exactly what the framers foresaw when they argued vehemently against imposing a supermajority threshold in the Senate. They wrote in the Federalist Papers that you can’t give what they called a ‘pertinacious minority’ the ability to block the majority, because if you did, they would be unable to resist that temptation, and they would use it to embarrass the majority repeatedly. So they knew exactly what was going to happen—they foresaw Mitch McConnell, they saw him coming … We have to take the option away from the minority to just block the majority for the purposes of making them look bad, and then the minority rides voter discontent back to power in the next election.

You can watch the full episode below:

YouTube Video

Sen. Brian Schatz (Hawaii) talks to Daily Kos, live today on The Brief

Posted on by kos

My YouTube show The Brief, co-hosted with Kerry Eleveld, airs every Tuesday, 1:30PT/4:30ET. Today we’re going to go deep into the Senate with the help of two amazing guests: U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, and Adam Jentleson, former top aide to Harry Reid and author of his new book “Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy.” 

YouTube Video

We might have some things to talk about, like the brand new Democratic Senate majority  in the wake of the Georgia runoff elections, the insurrection at the Capitol, the looming impeachment trial, and the fate of President-elect Joe Biden’s 100-day agenda with our narrow 50-50 majority and the destructive filibuster (which is the topic of Jentleson’s book). 

The show is also expanding into a podcast as well. Links to all the relevant podcasting platforms are being finalized and I’ll share those as soon as we get inclusion. 

Drop any questions you might have for Sen. Schatz or Jentleson in the comments below!

House convenes to begin process of impeaching Trump for the second time

Posted on by Joan McCarter

The House of Representatives will vote Tuesday evening to tell Vice President Pence to "convene and mobilize the principal officers of the executive departments of the Cabinet to activate section 4 of the 25th Amendment to declare President Donald J. Trump incapable of executing the duties of his office and to immediately exercise powers as acting President." Knowing that Pence will not do so, they will vote on Wednesday at 9 AM ET to charge Trump with "inciting violence against the government of the United States" and will impeach him.

They could be joined by some Republicans. Republican leadership is not whipping votes against it. Members will be advised to "vote their conscience." Which is a strange thing to assume 139 of them who voted to throw out the results of a free and fair election, including leaders Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise, even have. There will be a single impeachment article for "incitement of insurrection."

"In all this, President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of Government," the resolution says. "He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coequal branch of Government. He thereby betrayed his trust as President, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States." Trump, as always, remains belligerent and defiant and again threatened his opponents with further violence. "For Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer to continue on this path, I think it's causing tremendous danger to our county and it's causing tremendous anger. I want no violence," he told reporters Tuesday.  

That of course will not stop the process. But what happens on the Senate side remains uncertain because it's absolutely unprecedented. Incoming Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, importantly, has advised Democratic senators that impeachment hearings are going to happen and to not even discuss censure as a possible alternative. They are exploring ways of moving forward. One includes an obscure emergency authority that would allow him and current Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to end the recess, which is now set to end on January 19, and reconvene immediately after the House transmits the articles of impeachment. That requires McConnell's cooperation and thus far no one in his office is answering calls from reporters, so no one knows whether this is really an option.

Another option Democrats are exploring is moving forward on parallel tracks, by referring the impeachment to the Senate Judiciary Committee for hearings and bypassing the floor for long enough to get critical nominations through. Another option is appointing a commission to investigate and produce a report the full Senate would then act on. Another possibility Biden has raised, that is potentially possible, according to experts the Washington Post's Greg Sargent talked to is "[a] half-day on dealing with impeachment, and [a] half-day getting my people nominated and confirmed," in Biden's words.

Scholar Norman Ornstein told Sargent that the the Constitution allows the Senate to set its own rules and procedures on impeachment, "So in theory it is possible to move forward with other actions even as they’re doing a trial." Adam Jentelson, a former senior adviser to Harry Reid and all around Senate procedural wonk, agrees. "The Senate can conduct this trial however it wants, so the bifurcation path is entirely doable,. […] Procedurally, it's basically a matter of conducting a two-track approach." It could, however, require unanimous consent giving the insurrectionists in the Senate a chance to make mischief.

Trump won't leave voluntarily. Pence won't force the issue. McConnell "ignored Trump's calls before Wednesday’s siege and now has no plans to call him back, according to one official," so he too is refusing to fulfill his oath and obligation to protect the country. The next week is going to be as fraught as the last, because the entire Republican Party sold its soul to Donald Trump five years ago, and sold out the country in the process.

House has the votes to impeach Trump—again

Posted on by Joan McCarter

The House of Representatives is moving toward the second impeachment of Donald Trump and consensus has emerged among leadership that they need to do it fast. They now have the 218 votes needed to get it done, though the week's proceedings could be complicated by the COVID-19 infections that resulting from the Jan. 6 attack, when many Republicans refused to wear masks to protect the colleagues they were sheltering with. If anything slows this effort down at this point, it will be the pandemic.

On Monday, leaders got the ball rolling when Majority Leader Steny Hoyer attempted to get unanimous consent for the House to pass a resolution demanding Vice President Mike Pence invoke the 25th Amendment to strip power from Trump. A West Virginia Republican objected, though it's worth noting he did so based on process rather than substantive grounds. There might be a dawning realization among at least some of them that they can't publicly defend what happened. At this point, the plan is for them to formally introduce and pass that same resolution Tuesday, giving Pence 24 hours to respond before moving to an impeachment vote Wednesday. But there might be momentum to move that timeline up.

Rep. David Cicilline, a Rhode Island Democrat who has taken the lead in getting signatures on the impeachment resolution, told The Washington Post's Greg Sargent, "The whole reason for moving forward is the fact that every single minute this person stays in the White House presents a clear and present danger to our democracy. […] Most House Democrats believe he should be removed as quickly as possible." He argued against Rep. James Clyburn's suggestion that the House wait until President-elect Joe Biden's first 100 days are done before sending the resolution over to the Senate.

"This is an attack unlike we’ve ever seen on the very foundations of our democracy," Cicilline told Sargent. "The American people saw this playing out in real time, and the visuals were so powerful that I think there's growing pressure on the Republicans to do something." He's backed by Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and by Rep. Adam Schiff, who told CBS News, "If we impeach him this week […] it should immediately be transmitted to the Senate and we should try the case as soon as possible. […] Mitch McConnell has demonstrated when it comes to jamming Supreme Court justices through the Congress, he can move with great alacrity when he wants to."

That's arguing that there's a possibility of pressuring Senate Majority Leader McConnell, which is not impossible but unlikely. The only public comment McConnell has given following Wednesday's attack on the Capitol—on his own institution—and Trump's incitement of insurrection is a memo sent Friday to Senate Republicans saying the earliest the Senate could act is Jan. 19, one day before the inauguration. That's not actually true, as Schiff says. If McConnell wanted to bring the Senate back, he could.

With the FBI warning of further domestic terrorism and violence over the next week and during planned Jan. 17 rallies in D.C. and state capitals, there might be an awakening among Senate Republicans that they've got to do something. It's not a safe bet, but three Senate Republicans—Pat Toomey, Lisa Murkowski, and Ben Sasse—have said Trump has to go. Toomey and Sasse say they would consider articles of impeachment, but they're not sure there's enough time, and Murkowski wants him to resign.

There's another call Monday among House Democrats that could speed up Pelosi's timeline. The momentum to act grows by the minute, at least among House members.

Monday, Jan 11, 2021 · 7:35:03 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter

It’s official. The 25th Amendment vote will be Tuesday, impeachment Wednesday. 

House starts the impeachment ball rolling Monday, with vote expected by Wednesday

Posted on by Joan McCarter

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi laid out the week's efforts to dislodge Donald Trump from the Oval Office in a Sunday letter. The House will be in a pro forma session Monday, during which Majority Leader Steny Hoyer will introduce a resolution directing Vice President Mike Pence to "convene and mobilize the Cabinet to activate the 25th Amendment to declare the President incapable of executing the duties of his office." Since Pence hasn't even bothered to return her phone call from Thursday, they do this with no expectation that he will act.

They are also doing it with the expectation that a Republican will reject Hoyer's request for unanimous consent to bring up the resolution. The plan as of now is for the resolution to be brought to the floor Tuesday for a vote, giving Pence 24 hours for a response. Which they won't get but which would trigger the impeachment vote. "In protecting our Constitution and our Democracy, we will act with urgency, because this President represents an imminent threat to both," Pelosi wrote. "As the days go by, the horror of the ongoing assault on our democracy perpetrated by this President is intensified and so is the immediate need for action," she continued.

The impeachment vote is expected by Wednesday, and as of Sunday night there were 210 Democrats, out of 222 in the caucus, who signed on to one of the impeachment resolutions. The impeachment resolution asserts that Trump would "remain a threat to national security, democracy, and the Constitution" if he is not removed. It will charge him with inciting an insurrection. "In all this, President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of Government," the resolution says. "He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coequal branch of Government. He thereby betrayed his trust as President, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States."

House members have been instructed to return to D.C. by Tuesday, and leaders are working with the Federal Air Marshal Service and Capitol police on a plan to keep members safe as they return to D.C. and move back into the Capitol and their offices after Wednesday's attack.

In her letter, Pelosi also announced a Caucus call for Monday, during which she expects to discuss "the 25th Amendment, 14th Amendment Section 3 and impeachment." It's that middle bit—the 14th Amendment Section 3—that is significant:

"No Person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability."

That's how the Congress expels insurrectionists, which is now the majority of House Republicans and eight Senate Republicans who voted to overturn election results even after Trump' mob invaded and vandalized the People's House, intent on hunting down and assassinating congressional leadership. Freshman Democratic Rep. Cori Bush will introduce a resolution to expel those members Monday.

The first order, however is getting rid of Trump, Rep. Jim Clyburn said on Fox News Sunday. "If we are the people's house, let's do the people's work and let's vote to impeach this president. … The Senate will decide later what to do with that—an impeachment." What happens after that vote isn't entirely clear. Clyburn argued on CNN, also on Sunday, that the Senate should wait until after President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration. "Let's give President-elect Biden the 100 days he needs to get his agenda off and running," he said.

Senate Majority Leader (for the next 10 days or so) Mitch McConnell hasn't spoken about plans, but his former chief of staff Josh Holmes, who also runs his PACs, tweeted Sunday "The more time, images, and stories removed from Wednesday the worse it gets. If you're not in a white hot rage over what happened by now you're not paying attention." Whether or not that translates into McConnell acting, who knows.

The third branch of government, the courts, have also weighed in—or more aptly declined to do so. The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied a motion from Trump to fast-track consideration of the multiple lawsuits he has seeking to overturn the election. The court is not going to hear his cases before the inauguration, if ever, making this the 63rd time Trump has lost in court.

Capitol assault brings Democrats to a boil. 191 now say they support second impeachment

Posted on by Meteor Blades

The right-wing insurgent assault on the nation’s Capitol—with its calls for lynching the vice president, the killing of a police officer, the beatings, the thefts, and the vandalism, all directed at smashing democracy and incited by Donald Trump—has kicked the needle of the Democratic anger gauge deep into the red zone. The outrage has persuaded 191 House Democrats to publicly support impeachment—according to an ongoing tally by Daily Kos Elections—and sparked some unusually furious responses to Republicans trying to downplay the gravity of the attack.

For instance, here’s the representative from Pennsylvania’s 2nd congressional district giving the junior senator from Texas F-bombed advice to stop spreading manure on Twitter:

Dear @tedcruz - Just stop. You know better. I know you know better. It’s not a fucking game. 5 people were killed. What the fuck is it going to take for you to end this shit? How many more 20-yr old staffers do you want to be terrorized and hiding in our offices? https://t.co/Hc1LQGNuhs

— US Rep Brendan Boyle (@RepBrendanBoyle) January 9, 2021

As Cruz knows, calling Nazis Nazis isn’t what’s tearing the country apart. It’s people behaving like Nazis.

And then there’s Sen. Sherrod Brown from Ohio:

Both @HawleyMO and @SenTedCruz have betrayed their oaths of office and abetted a violent insurrection on our democracy. I am calling for their immediate resignations. If they do not resign, the Senate must expel them.

— Sherrod Brown (@SenSherrodBrown) January 9, 2021

And Rep. Haley Stevens from Michigan’s 11th congressional district:

If you are an elected Member of Congress or any office, and encouraging or excusing an insurrection in the U.S Capitol, then you are a traitor to this nation & the oath that you took. And if you were trying to overturn the election, you are as well. You just weren’t successful.

— Haley Stevens (@HaleyLive) January 8, 2021

Some Republicans want Democrats to chill out for the sake of the nation. That at least is the message of a small group who sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Friday night:

The lawmakers, led by Representative Ken Buck of Colorado, warned in a letter to Biden on Saturday that Trump’s impeachment would inflame his supporters anew, and damage Biden’s efforts to unify the country.

“In the spirit of healing and fidelity to our Constitution, we ask that you formally request that Speaker Nancy Pelosi discontinue her efforts to impeach President Donald J. Trump a second time,” they wrote. [...]

They added that impeachment “would undermine your priority of unifying Americans, and would be a further distraction to our nation at a time when millions of our fellow citizens are hurting because of the pandemic and the economic fallout.”

These lawmakers want everyone to forget that if they and a solid minority of their colleagues had supported the first impeachment, Trump wouldn’t have been around to make the pandemic and economic downturn as bad of disasters as they are. The incredible notion that Rep. Buck and his compatriots are putting forth is that if Democrats just lay off the guy whose incendiary efforts incited a lethal operation against the seat of American government, then the healing will go smoother is as delusional as the guy still squatting in the Oval Office for the next 11 days. They seem to believe there will be no second attack on or before Jan. 20. They pretend these thugs and their thug mouthpiece in the White House are finished with their insurrection.

Trump isn’t going to just fade away. Yes, he’ll be evicted Jan. 20, but that doesn’t mean he’ll be gone from public life unless an impeachment conviction bars him from running for elected office in 2024. Yes, getting that conviction is a huge long shot as the first impeachment obviously showed. But the tough odds are not an excuse for failing to even try.

Happily, 191 Democrats have publicly given support for moving ahead with impeachment. That’s good news. Not a distraction. Not a mistaken tactic. A necessity. The last thing Democrats should do right now is chill out.