Category: Insurrection

Trump is sorry … that he didn’t do more to support the violent mob of insurrectionists

Posted on by Mark Sumner

Democrats in the House have now gathered over 140 names on new articles of impeachment against Donald Trump that will be introduced on Monday. If all goes well, they’ll be voted on the same day. At the same time, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer continue to press Mike Pence to act using the 25th Amendment. However, as more Cabinet members resign and Pence huddles in silence, the odds of that happening seem ever smaller. 

Meanwhile, the Twitterless Trump is casting about for one last desperate act. In addition to Trump, Twitter has been hacking down accounts that have suggested another, even more violent, assault on the capital on Jan. 17 or Jan. 20. Over on Parler, they’ve very definitely not been taking down any efforts to organize an attack on either those dates or Jan. 19. And if there’s one thing that Trump has made clear to his remaining staff, it’s that he’s sorry. Not sorry about arranging and inciting a violent assault on the nation. But sorry that he ever ever told the insurgents to leave the Capitol building.

Trump was ecstatic to see his supporters shoving through barriers, overwhelming an unprepared police force, and taking the Capitol by storm. As the insurrectionists prowled through the halls of Congress in hopes of turning legislators into hostages, and Trump supporters cast down the American flag to raise his own banner, Trump strolled around the White House in excitement. The fact that other people weren’t seeing this as a good thing completely baffled him. It was, after all, exactly what Trump had been wanting for years. 

As The New York Times reports, after a stunned nation recoiled in disgust, and Joe Biden came out to demand that Trump end this rampage by his followers, Trump did take to Twitter to deliver a brief statement—one in which he told the insurrectionists they were “very special” and assured them “I love you.” Even so, Trump did include a statement that the violent criminals who were even then smearing human excrement along the halls of Congress should “go home in peace.”

It’s that last part that Trump regrets.  The part where he told them to leave, and gave some hint that he would allow an orderly transition—though without naming Biden or including the word “peaceful.”

At the end of a week in which his followers attempted a violent overthrow of the American government, the only thing that Trump regrets is that it didn’t work. And that after planning it, bringing in every white supremacist he could find, and shoving them toward Congress, he didn’t do more to cheer for their victory.

The second impeachment of Trump will begin on Monday

Posted on by Joan McCarter

House Democrats met by conference call Friday, the outcome of which is articles of impeachment against Donald Trump will be ready to be introduced on Monday. A source told Reuters the articles drafted by Representatives David Cicilline, Ted Lieu, and Jamie Raskin will be introduced in Monday's pro forma session. There will likely be an objection from Republicans, so they probably will have to bring the whole House back to bring the resolution formally Tuesday or Wednesday.

A draft of the measure charges Trump with "inciting violence against the government of the United States" in his effort to overturn the results seating President-elect Joe Biden. The articles also cite Trump's efforts to get Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" the votes to give the state to him. "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 coordinate branch of government," the draft legislation states. "President 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, [emphasis added]" it concludes. That says it all.

Asked about the effort at a press conference Friday, Biden said that he's long thought Trump was unfit for office and that was a key reason for his run. He added "What the Congress decides to do is for them to decide. … So we're going to do our job, and Congress can decide how to proceed with theirs." Pressed again on what he would advise congressional leaders, Biden said "I'd tell them that's a decision for the Congress to make. I'm focused on my job." As he should be.

This is a decision for Congress, and it's vitally important that they move forward with it. Not just to make sure Trump is barred from ever holding office again. Not just to make sure that no Republican president ever, ever tries this again in the future. Not just to hold all of the Republicans in Congress who have participated in this sedition accountable, forcing them to face the American people and vote.

To make the country whole again. To restore the rule of law. For that effort, thank you to every Democratic member of Congress responsible.

Trump remains defiant, Pence refuses to act. Impeachment is inevitable and must start now

Posted on by Joan McCarter

The calls for Donald Trump's immediate removal from office are growing louder and more insistent with every hour that passes. As of Friday morning, 159 House Democrats and 22 Senate Democrats have issued statements supporting impeachment. A Republican, Sen. Ben Sasse, is also on board, saying that he will "definitely consider whatever articles [the House] might move because I believe the president has disregarded his oath of office. … What he did was wicked."

Assistance House Speaker Katherine Clark told CNN that the House will move forward with an impeachment vote by the middle of next week if Vice President Pence and the Cabinet have not acted to remove Trump using the 25th Amendment. They need to move faster. They need to move now, because the 25th Amendment route is not happening and Trump remains dangerous.

Pence spent the whole of Thursday avoiding phone calls from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer. The resignations of two Cabinet secretaries—Elaine Chao and Betsy DeVos—complicate that process as well. CNBC reports that Steven Mnuchin and Mike Pompeo have had discussions with staff in their own agencies, identifying obstacles—the time it would take with just two weeks to inauguration, whether the "acting" secretaries—three of them—would be able to vote, and "concerns that forcing Trump from office could further stoke tensions among his base and make him a hero of the far right, doing more bad in the long term than good in the short term." Meaning they don't want to become targets of Trump's violent mob. "The general plan now is to let the clock run out," a former senior administration official told CNBC. "There will be a reckoning for this president, but it doesn't need to happen in the next 13 days."

A Trump tweet—he's out of Twitter jail for the moment—belies that sentiment. He remains defiant, threatening that the "great American Patriots" who voted for him and presumably those who attempted to overthrow the government at his instigation "will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!" He remains a danger and he and his mob pose a very real threat to the inauguration on Jan. 20, not to mention the entire Congress, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris for the foreseeable future.

House Democrats are meeting Friday at noon and leadership seems ready to move forward. "I can confirm that we have had discussions about it and I would hope that the speaker would move forward if the vice president refuses to do what he is required to do under the Constitution," Rep. James Clyburn told CNN. "Everyone knows that this president is deranged." The previous impeachment manager, Rep. Adam Schiff, is ready to go. "Donald Trump lit the fuse which exploded at the Capitol," he tweeted. "Every day that he remains in office, he is a danger to the Republic. He should leave office immediately, through resignation, the 25th Amendment or impeachment."

At this point it seems to be a matter of when, not if, on impeachment. That puts pressure on the Senate Majority Leader (for the next few weeks) Mitch McConnell to act. The Senate is recessed until Jan. 19, but can and should reconvene for an impeachment hearing. If McConnell has any hopes at all of reconstituting a majority in 2022, he'll feel that pressure.

The door has to be slammed on Trump’s future. He must be impeached and convicted

Posted on by Joan McCarter

Insurrectionist loser Donald Trump finally was forced by someone to issue a statement of concession Thursday morning. That statement, as much as anything that has transpired over the past four awful years and horrifying 24 hours, demonstrates why Trump must be impeached and convicted in the next 13 days.

"Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th," the statement reads. Still with the baseless claims of fraud. But this is where the danger lies: "I have always said we would continue our fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it's only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again!" That's Trump promising that he will not go away, that he is going to continue to foment civil war, that he's going to hang on to his army of violent extremists and continue this fight. Preventing him from doing that has to be the first priority for the next two weeks in Congress.

Thursday, Jan 7, 2021 · 4:56:38 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter

This is very good. Thank you, Sen. Merkley. 

Trump is absolutely unfit and should be removed from office. If we can do it by Jan 20 by impeachment, I am all for it. The cabinet and VP can and should invoke the 25th Amendment TODAY. And there should be criminal investigations and prosecutions. Justice demands accountability.

— Senator Jeff Merkley (@SenJeffMerkley) January 7, 2021

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Trump has forfeited any future in American public life and the Congress must ensure that. The door for Trump to participate in any kind of public life ever again has to be slammed shut. That’s why he must be impeached. Any avenue for him back to power has to be completely blocked. More than that, the Republicans that have enabled him for the past four years have to be held to account—and that's also why he must be impeached and convicted.

Senate Democrats are already making excuses. They are already giving their Republican colleagues an out. Oregon Democrat Jeff Merkley says: "To take these critical few weeks and spend them on a President who is going to be removed on January 20th would be a disservice to our nation." Called on that by David Nir, he lamely lets Republicans off the hook. "If we can do it by Jan 20, I am all for it. But unfortunately, Mitch McConnell still runs the Senate until Trump's term is up." That's pathetic excuse-making from Merkley. He's not the only one. Sen. Dick Durbin, a member of Senate leadership, told reporters: "He certainly deserves it […] after what happened yesterday he should be removed from office but I don’t believe there's stomach for it on the Republican side and there's very little time left."

Trump has to be stopped and the Republicans who enabled him have to be stopped. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley have to be stopped. They each think they can capitalize on their role in this insurrection to the White House and with what we've experienced since 2016, they might not be wrong. They have to be shut down. Forcing them—forcing McConnell—to face what they have created and force them to either stand behind it or renounce it is vitally important. What happened on Jan. 6 could very well happen again, at Trump's instigation and with Republican complicity. That can't be allowed. Impeachment is one critical way to stop it.

Impeach Trump IMMEDIATELY. He is a direct threat to U.S. national security and the republic itself

Posted on (Updated by Kerry Eleveld

Nearly 30 Democratic members of the House have expressed a desire to impeach Donald Trump a second time following his incitement Wednesday of an armed insurrection at the U.S. Capitol as lawmakers attempted to certify the results of the November presidential election. 

They are absolutely right. Trump is a direct threat to the sovereign. For more than two months, Trump has spewed a constant stream of disinformation about the election being stolen from him and his supporters being disenfranchised. On Wednesday morning, Trump spent some two hours urging his followers to storm the U.S. Capitol at a “Save America” rally. “We will never give up. We will never concede,” Trump told several thousand of his cultists who had gathered on the Ellipse to see him speak. 

His supporters, hopped up on conspiracy and grievance, then marched over to the Capitol and staged a violent insurrection—pushing back Capitol police, shooting mace at them, threatening lawmakers and journalists, breaking windows, destroying property, and ultimately overtaking the building along with several others on the Capitol complex. 

Several hours after images of the violent takeover had flooded new outlets and social media streams, Trump finally posted a video urging his cultists to go home peacefully. But even that video was riddled with more conspiracy and grievance-stoking by Trump. 

“I know your pain. I know your hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side,” Trump falsely stated before telling his followers to go home. He then went straight back at it, lamenting, “There's never been a time where such a thing happened, where they could take it away from all of us—from me, from you, from our country.” And finally, “So go home. We love you. You're very special,” Trump concluded, offering a warm embrace to the terrorists who had stormed the Capitol to stage a coup attempt.

The unfathomable breakdown of law enforcement during this entire episode will be investigated and parsed for years to come. But what we do know is that it took hours for the D.C. National Guard to be called up to provide reinforcements, partly because it is not controlled by the D.C. mayor but rather the president. After D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi both sent a formal request to the Department of Defense to deploy the National Guard, Vice President Mike Pence finally approved the deployment, not Trump. Trump, still the commander in chief, apparently couldn’t be bothered to send in reinforcements to protect U.S. lawmakers, the Capitol complex, and all its denizens. 

To recap, Trump spent months pumping his low-information voters full of crap; he then personally directed them to storm the Capitol on the day of congressional certification; when his supporters did storm the Capitol, he posted a video justifying their ire and lavishing praise on them while also declining to deploy troops in order to protect U.S. lawmakers and federal property. Many of those protesters—who were inexplicably allowed to exit the building on Wednesday evening without suffering any consequences—told journalists and others they planned to return at a later date with their guns. 

And finally, once the worst of the occupation appeared to be over, Trump celebrated the seditious actions of his cultists. “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long,” Trump tweeted Wednesday evening. Twitter finally locked Trump’s account by day’s end, but lasting damage to the heart of our democracy had already been done.

What unfolds over the next 14 days between now and the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden remains entirely unclear. What is clear is that Trump’s cultists aren’t done yet, and Trump himself is perfectly happy to stoke their worst impulses while leaving the nation’s Capitol, along with our duly elected U.S. lawmakers, unprotected. Donald Trump is a clear and present danger to American democracy, our systems of government, and the republic itself. He must be impeached immediately after Congress finishes the business of certifying the Electoral College votes. As Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona told MSNBC Wednesday evening, “Democracy's not safe right now. … I don't trust this president.”

Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota announced Wednesday afternoon that she was drafting articles of impeachment. Omar was among the first of several lawmakers to express support for impeaching Trump following his direct involvement in one of the most shameful episodes in our nation’s history. The effort has quickly attracted the backing of a diverse group of Democratic lawmakers, from progressive representatives like Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Pramila Jayapal of Washington to more moderate members like Seth Moulton of Massachusetts and Jim Cooper of Tennessee. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi must take up the matter immediately following congressional certification. Few if any instances in American history have ever posed such an obvious and urgent existential threat to the United States of America. 

Donald Trump speaks to insurrectionists occupying Capitol: ‘I love you. You’re very special’

Posted on by Mark Sumner

For more than two hours, the nation’s capital has been under siege. Police have been injured, a woman has been shot, at least one improvised explosive device has been found. Both chambers of Congress have invaded by a mob of armed insurrectionists intent on overthrowing the elected government, congressional offices are being ransacked, and both the Senate and House have been evacuated along with several other federal buildings. All of this came after Donald Trump told his supporters he was going to march with them “up Pennsylvania Avenue” to the Capitol, where they would “cheer” for Republicans opposing the counting of the Electoral College vote.

But Trump didn’t march. He didn’t walk so much as a block. Instead, he got back into his car and returned to the White House. As a result, many of his supporters were convinced that Trump was still physically with them, even when the assault on the Capitol building began. Even as his supporters shoved over barriers, smashed through windows, broke open doors, and injured police to occupy the Capitol and threaten both legislators and their staffs. In those hours, Trump has issued only two milquetoast tweets, neither of which called on the terrorists who came to Washington, D.C. at his invitation to halt their invasion. Trump hasn’t just failed to issue a call to end this attempted insurrection, he has refused.

Wednesday, Jan 6, 2021 · 9:43:02 PM +00:00 · kos

Losing the U.S. Capitol during a key electoral procedure to a modestly-sized crowd from a publicly-announced event is not a "failure." It was a decision. They were ordered to not do what they normally would've done. We need a full accounting of every single official involved. https://t.co/YiuqCicEJ0

— Max Kennerly (@MaxKennerly) January 6, 2021

Wednesday, Jan 6, 2021 · 9:46:05 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

I am drawing up Articles of Impeachment. Donald J. Trump should be impeached by the House of Representatives & removed from office by the United States Senate. We can’t allow him to remain in office, it’s a matter of preserving our Republic and we need to fulfill our oath.

— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) January 6, 2021

Wednesday, Jan 6, 2021 · 9:48:20 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

CNN: National Association of Manufacturers, the nation's largest manufacturing association, called on Vice President Mike Pence Wednesday to consider working to remove President Trump from office.

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) January 6, 2021

Multiple sources have reported that several people inside the White House, including Mike Pence, have called on Trump to issue a stronger statement to his followers. However, Trump is said to be angry at Pence for failing to overturn the election results … so he’s holding the whole nation hostage to his pout.

Pence has issued his own statement saying that “those involved will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” However, that also remains to be seen. Having gathered his followers together under the promise of a “wild” time; having spent months inflaming them with lies about a stolen election; and having spent years teaching his followers to disregard every other source … there is every reason to expect that, far from prosecuting the terrorists, Trump will issue a blanket pardon.

At 4 PM EST, President-elect Joe Biden issued a statement in which he said: “This is not protest. It is insurrection.” He called on Trump to go on national television and end this attempted overthrow of the nation.

Fifteen minutes later, Trump issued a statement to the terrorists saying: “I love you. You’re very special. I know how you feel.” In the video, Trump continued to insist that the election was stolen and he won in a landslide.

Trump did say for terrorists to “go home in peace.” That’s one hell of a lot different from “prosecuted the fullest extent of the law.”

pic.twitter.com/Pm2PKV0Fp3

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2021