Constitutional Professor: Why Senate Cannot Bar Trump From Being President Again

Posted on February 9, 2021 by RealClearWire

By James Sieja for RealClearPolitics

Perhaps they are thinking about the next election or their political legacies, but Democrats and some Republicans intent on impeaching and convicting former President Donald Trump are not reading the Constitution correctly.

When the Senate trial begins Monday, there will be lots of grandstanding and lawyerly pettifogging, and we will find out if Democrats can convince 17 Republicans that they need to convict the former president.

Fortunately, I don’t think they’ll succeed. I say fortunately because impeaching Trump would be wrong, constitutionally speaking.

Forty-five Republicans recently voted that this second Trump impeachment trial is in itself unconstitutional. They are incorrect.

The bipartisan group of 55 senators who voted to proceed to the trial think that the Senate can apply a sanction after conviction. Constitutionally, they’re wrong, too.

Republicans are wrong because the plain text of the Constitution, as Michael McConnell, a Stanford professor and former federal judge, points out, makes no exceptions or qualifications to either the House’s “sole power of impeachment” or the Senate’s “sole power to try all impeachments.”

Therefore, the Senate clearly has the power — what legal scholars call jurisdiction — to try the case.

But, jurisdiction is not the only consideration enshrined in constitutional law.

Two other concepts, standing and justiciability, are central to any court’s decision-making at the beginning of a case. Along with jurisdiction, courts call them, collectively, “threshold questions.”

Because senators, especially the ones looking to convict, exercise judicial power when they try any impeachment, they would do well to take seriously the requirements for standing and the Supreme Court’s rules for justiciability.

Standing refers to someone’s ability to bring a case to court in the first place. In the 1992 case Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, the late Justice Antonin Scalia listed three factors that comprise the “irreducible constitutional minimum” basis for standing.

While people probably know Justice Scalia for his acerbic dissents, the Lujan majority today is likely his most widely cited uncontroversial opinion.

In the second Trump impeachment, the relevant element of the Lujan trio is the last one: The court must be able to give a final, binding judgment to the party that wants a punishment.

The House wants to punish Trump for his actions. Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution plainly declares the required punishment: “The president … shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of … high crimes and misdemeanors.”

“Shall” means it must happen. The Senate can’t remove Trump from a position he no longer holds, which means it can’t punish him. Thus, the House lacks standing.

To be clear, the House retained standing while Trump retained the presidency. But, once he left, the case became moot — purely a matter for discussion, like the number of angels that can dance on the head of a pin.

“Wait!” supporters of conviction cry out. “There’s also the bit in Article I about disqualifying a person who’s been impeached from holding office ever again.”

That is true, but the passage doesn’t improve the logic of a post-presidency Senate punishment in the least. No matter how long we “Wait!” the Senate will still not be able to render the required punishment, so the standing problem remains.

More importantly, the disqualification punishment presents a justiciability question. Justiciability refers to the ability of a court to effectively resolve the case.

Over several cases, the Supreme Court has identified a bunch of factors that lead to justiciability issues, but all of them stem from a single idea: It’s not the court’s job to decide this, but rather it’s somebody else’s job.

If the Senate tried to disqualify Trump from holding the presidency again, it would arrogate a privilege — determining who will not be president — that the Constitution explicitly reserves to another body: We the People.

Thus, there is a clear justiciability problem with disqualification if it tries to block anyone — Trump, you, me, anyone — from winning the presidency or other elected office.

Alexander Hamilton declared that the Constitution stood for the idea “that the people should choose whom they please to govern them.”

However imperfectly, this is what we do in districts and states throughout the country. And we choose through the Electoral College, a defense of which the current impeachment ironically springs from.

For the House and Senate, a mere 535 citizens, to absolutely bar nearly 160 million from a completely free electoral choice turns the Constitution upside down.

Ultimately, the Senate can exercise its clear jurisdiction to hear the case, complete with senatorial bloviations, and lawyerly dodges.

But, if the outcome is anything other than the status quo ante, meaning Trump remains eligible for the presidency in the future, the Senate will deal a grave blow to not just the Constitution but to every member of We the People who thinks they still have a choice.

Syndicated with permission from RealClearWire.

James Sieja, assistant professor of government at St. Lawrence University, studies the federal court system and teaches courses in the U.S. Constitution.

The post Constitutional Professor: Why Senate Cannot Bar Trump From Being President Again appeared first on The Political Insider.

Hiding Biden: How Democrats Crafted First Impeachment, Helping Defeat Trump With Media Help

Posted on February 5, 2021 by RealClearWire

By Mark Hemingway for RealClearInvestigations

By the numbers, Joe Biden is president of the United States because he won the swing states of Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin by a combined total of some 43,000 votes.

But he also owes his victory to the groundwork laid by Democrats and their media allies one year before, during the first impeachment of Donald Trump over his supposedly strings-attached demand that the Ukrainian government investigate alleged corruption involving Biden’s son, Hunter.

The first impeachment failed to oust Trump from office, but it helped secure the White House for Biden.

It shielded him from scrutiny, enabling him and his supporters to cast allegations during the campaign about dubious Biden family business ties as rehashed Trumpian conspiracy theories.

Biden’s razor-thin swing state victories might not have materialized if the Trump campaign had been able to gain traction from its October Surprise – a series of articles it helped orchestrate in the New York Post that reported information from a laptop owned by Hunter Biden suggesting corrupt foreign business deals that may have involved his father.

As many as 45% of Biden voters said they were unaware of Hunter’s financial scandals before the election.

That’s likely because Democrats and much of the media discredited or did not report the accusations in the final weeks of the campaign – accusations that were bolstered after the election when Hunter admitted that he has been the subject of an ongoing federal corruption probe since 2018.

Once the Post ran its first laptop article on Oct. 14, Democrats and their allies immediately turned to the narrative they had long used against Trump: foreign interference.

Without evidence save for the claims of Democrat partisans and anonymous official sources — like those commonly relied upon during the debunked Trump-Russia affair — the New York Times, Washington Post, and Politico ran stories suggesting the laptop could be Russian disinformation.

Joe Biden said the laptop was a “Russian plan” at the first presidential debate.

The FBI, which was a main driver of the Trump-Russia collusion investigation, added to the narrative when word was leaked that the bureau was investigating whether the laptop emails were Russian disinformation.

Twitter and Facebook reacted by actively censoring the Hunter Biden story. Twitter went so far as to lock the New York Post out of its own account.

As the Senate prepares next week to take up a second impeachment of Trump, Republican objections to the Democrats’ handling of the first go-round loom large.

The record of those proceedings shows that they were conducted in a highly unusual manner. In retrospect, it seems clear that they were designed not just to target Trump – but to protect Biden.

Taking Early Aim

Some Democrats were bent on impeaching Trump from the moment he took office, on Jan. 20, 2017. Just 19 minutes after Trump was sworn in, the Washington Post published a piece headlined, “The Campaign to Impeach President Trump Has Begun.”

Those early efforts were spearheaded by Texas Rep. Al Green, who drew up articles of impeachment for alleged misdeeds ranging from Trump’s insulting kneeling professional football players to his firing of former FBI Director James Comey.

Green’s effort led to three different unsuccessful impeachment votes — one in 2017 and two more in 2019 after Democrats gained a House majority in the 2018 election.

Publicly, Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders said they did not approve of Green’s efforts.

“Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path, because it divides the country,” the House speaker told the Washington Post in March 2019.

Privately, Democratic leaders were betting Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Trump-Russia collusion would produce a clearly impeachable offense.

They were wrong.

After three years of thorough investigation – as well as thousands of breathless articles and untold hours of TV coverage keyed toward Trump’s prospective guilt – Mueller’s final report, issued in March 2019, concluded that the probe “[did] not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.”

Mueller did not make a determination of whether Trump had tried to obstruct his investigation. Looking at the evidence, Attorney General William Barr determined he had not.

Nevertheless, some powerful Democrats sought to use the Mueller report as the basis to impeach Trump, only to be rebuffed by Pelosi.

The speed of what happened next blindsided Republicans.

The Ukraine Affair

In early August, a CIA employee filed a formal whistleblower complaint against President Trump aimed at forcing Congress to address the matter.

He alleged that Trump had pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a July 25 phone call to investigate the Bidens for political purposes, and subsequently made aid to Ukraine contingent on the probe.

Trump reportedly raised the issue because he believed there had never been any serious inquiry into why Hunter Biden, a lawyer with no experience in the energy sector, had been paid upwards of $80,000 a month to serve on the board of a Ukrainian gas company, Burisma.

Hunter received the appointment in 2014, shortly after his father was asked to oversee Ukrainian affairs as Barack Obama’s vice president. In 2016, Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in aid to Ukraine unless it fired a prosecutor widely considered to be ineffective.

The fired prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, testified that he was driven from office because he was investigating Burisma.

“There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son,” Trump told Zelensky, “that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the attorney general would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it. … It sounds horrible to me.”

At the time of the whistleblower complaint, Biden was favored to win the Democratic nomination for president.

However, the allegations regarding the Trump phone call with Zelensky were problematic from the start. The man who brought the complaint was not really a whistleblower as the term is commonly understood.

He had no direct knowledge of the phone call but had been leaked details of it by one of the seven American officials who were on the call with the president.

The Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel, whose legal opinions are normally binding on these matters, soon concluded the whistleblower complaint did not meet the requirements of an “urgent concern” for it to be forwarded to Congress.

Meanwhile, Adam Schiff, the Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, worked to surface the details of the complaint publicly. He recast obstacles to legitimizing the whistleblower’s complaint as attempts to hide Trump’s malfeasance.

When the White House ultimately made a transcript of the call public, Trump’s rhetorical style, an odd combination of obliqueness and bluntness, made the idea of a quid pro quo – no Biden investigation, no aid — open to interpretation.

Officials from Ukraine, which did not open an investigation, said they never felt pressured by Trump.

Despite the procedural problems with the whistleblower complaint, it provided a semblance of formal process to buttress an all-new impeachment attempt.

Progressives and much of the media cast the call as an abuse of power by Trump who, they claimed, tried to extort a foreign leader to kneecap a political rival. A formal House impeachment inquiry was launched on Sept. 24, 2019, with the full support of Democratic House leadership.

From the beginning, the impeachment inquiry was rife with episodes suggesting Democrats had a larger strategy. To begin with, they took an unprecedented amount of control over the process.

With the 2020 election and the prospect of a second Trump term looming, there would be no years-long special counsel or nonpartisan investigation of this matter.

While the Judiciary Committee, led by Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, was the traditional venue for impeachment, Democrats decided that Schiff would guide the impeachment inquiry through the Intelligence Committee.

Schiff, who had raised his national profile during the Mueller probe by repeatedly claiming that he had seen more than circumstantial evidence that Trump had colluded with Russia, had already acquired a reputation for fierce partisanship.

In early October, shortly after the impeachment inquiry began, the New York Times reported that Schiff’s office had helped shepherd the alleged whistleblower’s complaint.

The Washington Post fact-checker gave Schiff “four Pinocchios” for repeatedly denying his office’s contact with the man. Nevertheless, Schiff received glowing press coverage for his impeachment efforts.

The mainstream press further enabled impeachment by refusing to publish the whistleblower’s name, in line with Democrat admonitions, even though he wasn’t formally protected by any whistleblower laws.

News organizations disclosed no agreements of source confidentiality with the man, and his identity was common knowledge in Washington.

When Paul Sperry of RealClearInvestigations reported the evidence that the whistleblower was a then-33-year-old CIA employee named Eric Ciaramella, this news blackout by major media allowed them to ignore his history of partisan ties and anti-Trump statements.

Sperry reported that Ciaramella had served as an adviser on Ukraine to Vice President Biden and had been overheard in 2017 discussing with another staffer how to “take out,” or remove, the new president from office.

That colleague was Sean Misko, who left the White House in the summer of 2019 to join House impeachment manager Schiff’s committee, where, sources say, he offered “guidance” to the whistleblower.

Aside from Schiff’s backstage dealings with Ciaramella, the Intelligence Committee chairman publicly tried to spin Trump’s alleged wrongdoing.

On Sept. 26, the day after the Trump-Zelensky transcript was released, Schiff gave an opening statement before acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire testified before his committee.

During the statement, Schiff, who had once been an aspiring screenwriter, characterized the president’s behavior on the Zelensky call as being like “a classic organized crime shakedown.” Instead of reading the plain text of the call, Schiff paraphrased what happened in hyperbolic and lurid terms.

“I have a favor I want from you,” Schiff said while seeming to read from a transcript. “And I’m going to say this only seven times, so you better listen good. I want you to make up dirt on my political opponent, understand? Lots of it, on this and on that.”

Republicans were appalled.

“He makes up a conversation supposedly between the president and Ukraine which sounds like a script from a cheap comic book. Lies and innuendo. He was called out on it and said, well, I meant it as a parody. Geez, that’s great. The fun begins,” Utah Congressman Chris Stewart would record in his journal, as quoted in “Obsession,” Washington Examiner reporter Byron York’s book on Democrats’ years-long quest to remove Trump from office.

Leaking Testimony

To make the case for impeachment, it was crucial for Democrats to demonstrate the existence of a quid pro quo between Trump and Zelensky, which was ambiguous because Trump never mentioned aid on the call.

Schiff responded to the Volker testimony by taking even more unprecedented steps for Democrats to control the impeachment proceedings. Volker had sat for what was known as a “transcribed interview,” which allowed Republicans to speak about the testimony afterward.

After Volker, Schiff made sure all the witnesses in the impeachment inquiry were deposed, forbidding committee members from discussing what was said publicly.

But the secrecy rules had a convenient and glaring exception – the witnesses themselves could speak about what happened. “The sessions settled into a pattern of secret testimony accompanied by quick leaks of witnesses’ opening statements,” York observes in “Obsession.”

The leaked, one-sided testimonies allowed press speculation to run wild, while House Republicans who knew the particulars were subject to ethics charges if they told the public what had actually been said.

The DNC-Ukraine Nexus

For Democrats, Biden was a fraught issue in the impeachment proceedings. One obvious defense of Trump was for Republicans to argue that the president’s questions about Biden family corruption in Ukraine were legitimate and necessary to protect national security.

Under questioning, multiple witnesses called by Democrats conceded that Hunter Biden’s role with Burisma was concerning, leading to calls for Hunter to testify in the proceedings. (During the subsequent Senate impeachment trial, one Democratic senator, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, said Hunter Biden was a relevant witness.)

Democrats rejected calls to question Hunter Biden, Ciaramella, and others.

“I think we really could have torpedoed impeachment by making the whistleblower detail all of his prior contacts with Schiff and also his prior contacts with Biden as well,” said a Republican House staffer with intimate knowledge of the proceedings who requested anonymity because he did not want to speak for elected officials.

Democrats also shut down Republican attempts to probe the Democratic Party’s own troubling connections to Ukraine during impeachment.

A Politico investigation published in January 2017 “found evidence of Ukrainian government involvement in the [2016] race that appears to strain diplomatic protocol dictating that governments refrain from engaging in one another’s elections.”

The article, written by David Stern and Kenneth Vogel, the latter now at the New York Times, reported that Ukrainian officials had helped Hillary “Clinton’s allies research damaging information on Trump and his advisers,” including his campaign manager, Paul Manafort.

Key to this effort was a Democratic National Committee operative, Alexandra Chalupa, who met with Ukrainian officials and American journalists in Washington and was invited to the White House by Biden’s Ukraine pointman – the future “whistleblower” Ciaramella.

(Chalupa wasn’t the only Democratic operative pushing Manafort dirt originating in Ukraine at about the same time. So was Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS, the Democratic contractor behind the discredited Steele dossier on Trump-Russia collusion. He has acknowledged feeding the media Ukraine tips in “Crime in Progress,” the book he co-wrote with his Fusion co-founder Peter Fritsch.)

But even though Politico’s reporting on Ukraine and the DNC was largely unquestioned for three years, the media once again sprang to Democrats’ defense as Republicans sought to make an issue of it.

In the end, Schiff’s secrecy and tight control over who got to testify allowed House Democrats to sidestep any explosive questions about the chairman’s role in instigating impeachment, the DNC’s involvement with Ukraine, and Biden’s potential role in his son’s corruption.

Ultimately, the Senate refused to convict Trump and many Republicans believed that it did little to harm him politically.

“Not a single Democrat speaker referenced impeachment during any of the convention, which is a really amazing thing,” the GOP staffer noted. “That just shows me they didn’t get a whole lot of political benefit out of it.”

Shielding Joe

But if impeachment failed to tarnish Trump as much as Democrats hoped, it appeared successful in delegitimizing valid questions about alleged Biden corruption.

After impeachment, the mainstream media showed almost no interest in investigating Biden family business ties, which were largely characterized as a series of unsubstantiated and debunked allegations.

Christiane Amanpour of PBS expressed the prevailing view in an interview with Republican National Committee spokesperson Liz Harrington when she said “there has never been any issues in terms of corruption” with the Bidens.

After Harrington disagreed and urged journalists to look into the story, Amanpour responded: “We’re not going to do your work for you.”

Some coverage transformed the potential scandals into a positive for Biden. At a campaign event in Iowa, a Democratic voter asked the candidate in December 2019 about allegations of his son’s corruption.

In response, Biden called the voter a “damn liar” and challenged him to an IQ test. CNN national political reporter Maeve Reston characterized the exchange this way: “In a human moment defending his son, Biden showed the authenticity, emotion and readiness for a fight that appeals to so many Democrats as they look for someone who can take on Trump.”

Last September, when a Senate intelligence panel report revealed that a firm co-founded by Hunter Biden received a $3.5-million wire transfer from the wife of a Russian politician, the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, and MSNBC did not cover the story.

When Trump raised the issue at the first presidential debate, Biden claimed it had been “totally discredited” even though its existence was confirmed by Treasury Department documents.

This news blackout may have helped propel Biden to victory, but questions regarding the Bidens have not gone away.

There is the laptop, which, far from Russian disinformation, did indeed belong to Hunter Biden, who in December admitted he has been the subject of a federal corruption probe since 2018.

Other evidence and testimony implicate President Biden. Tony Bobulinski, a former naval officer and business partner with Hunter Biden, asserted in October that he met with the senior Biden as part of a plan to secretly give the future president a 10% stake in a deal with a Chinese conglomerate with ties to the country’s communist government.

Bobulinski has provided documents to back up his account and news outlets such as the Wall Street Journal have confirmed they are authentic.

President Biden seems aware of the danger of family embarrassments, including from a January 2020 FBI raid involving allegations of financial fraud at a company where Biden’s brother James was listed as “principal.”

Politico reported last week that the president had pulled his brother Frank aside last summer to tell him, “For Christ’s sake, watch yourself. Don’t get sucked into something that would, first of all, hurt you.”

On Inauguration Day, a law firm’s ad promoting Frank Biden’s relationship with the president caused a new stir.

Such Biden family matters, and Republicans’ awareness that their concealment may have helped seal Trump’s defeat, color Democrats’ long-shot efforts next week to convince at least 17 senators of the opposite party to join their legally and politically fraught effort to convict a president in an impeachment trial after he has left office.

Republicans think the Democrats’ handling of the first impeachment poisoned the well.

“Republican fence sitters are probably already on the record denouncing the unfairness of the House process last time around, since both GOP House members and senators were doing that,” says a GOP staffer who insisted on anonymity. “So if that process was unfair, how can you trust Democrats enough to sign off on impeachment 2.0, when there wasn’t even any process to speak of at all?”

A number of House Democrats involved in the first impeachment declined to comment on their Republican colleagues’ concerns.

In a recent vote, 45 Republican senators went on record saying they did not believe impeaching a former president was constitutional.

Even prominent Senate Democrats, such as 2016 vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine, are advocating censuring Donald Trump for fear that a bitter and drawn out impeachment trial is not only futile but will hamper Biden’s ability to get his administration up and running during the crucial early months of the presidency.

Congressional Republicans, for their part, have shown no signs of dropping efforts begun in the first impeachment to investigate what they see as clear Biden family corruption – even after Trump’s second impeachment.

Prominent Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Lindsey Graham and Charles Grassley, recently told Fox News they plan to ask Joe Biden’s nominee for attorney general, Merrick Garland, about the Hunter Biden corruption probe during his nomination hearing.

Syndicated with permission from RealClearWire.

The post Hiding Biden: How Democrats Crafted First Impeachment, Helping Defeat Trump With Media Help appeared first on The Political Insider.

Dr. Ben Carson’s Plan For National Unity: American Cornerstone

Posted on February 5, 2021 by RealClearWire

By Ben Carson for RealClearPolitics

We have painted our fellow Americans as “deplorable,” “stupid,” and worse. It is this type of malicious, political rhetoric fueled by opportunistic politicians and profit-driven media organizations that has roiled our deeply divided nation.

We are better than this. Words such as compromise, compassion, and civility are twisted, maligned and tainted as somehow being dirty, or have magically disappeared altogether.

We must do better than this.

I miss the days when Americans fought united for freedom and justice for all — equally.

I miss when compromise, compassion, and civility were not only encouraged but celebrated, where individuals accepted the consequences of their actions, when politicians pursued the public good, not just their own good.

My time serving as the secretary of Housing and Urban Development over the last four years taught me many things, none more important than the necessity for collaboration and mutual understanding.

I saw first-hand that, when we work together as one nation, the American Dream becomes attainable for all and opportunity becomes limitless.

It is for these reasons — and many others — that I am launching a nonprofit conservative think tank with the goal of providing common-sense solutions to some of our nation’s biggest problems. The first step in healing is to start talking to one another again.

The American Cornerstone Institute will be dedicated to creating dialogue and smart discourse.

ACI will focus on promoting and preserving individual and religious liberty, helping our country’s most vulnerable find new hope, and developing methods to maximize government’s efficiency and effectiveness to best serve all our nation’s citizens.

ACI will focus on a diverse set of issues that influence important policy discussions. We will engage with local governments and work with communities to find solutions to our nation’s problems.

We must work to improve American cities. While many of the country’s large cities face similar problems — homelessness, a higher cost of living, and rising crime, to name a few — the causes of these problems, and the best ways to address them, will vary from place to place.

The institute will study in detail some of America’s largest cities, identifying the key drivers of their current issues and potential solutions that take into account the unique characteristics of each urban area.

We will serve as a check on political power in Washington. ACI will actively push and remind the powers that be to allow and even empower local communities to govern their own affairs.

Washington may be home to our political arena, but it is seldom a place for finding solutions; for those we must look to the American people.

For the preservation of this great nation, for ourselves, and the next generation, we will foster a renewed focus on education.

If there’s one thing I know to be true, it’s that education is the key to prosperity. Without it, our communities will falter and our institutions will crumble.

We are one nation, under God. We must not forget that. The United States of America is seen as a beacon of freedom and hope across the world, a place where the practice of one’s faith should be encouraged and protected, without trepidation.

ACI will promote the value of self-sufficiency and the idea of creating equality of opportunity, not equality of outcome.

Providing individuals with opportunities to transform and improve their lives leads to better outcomes than subsidies and welfare programs.

We are a compassionate nation, the greatest civic experiment in history, the world’s guiding light of freedom and opportunity.

The Bible says, if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.

There have been many calls to heal the divide that has polarized our great nation. The American Cornerstone Institute will be a leader and part of the solution. Our goal is simple: heal, inspire, and revive America.

Syndicated with permission from RealClearWire.

Dr. Ben Carson is the former secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

The post Dr. Ben Carson’s Plan For National Unity: American Cornerstone appeared first on The Political Insider.

Romney Says Republicans Must Admit Biden Won Legitimately For ‘National Unity’

Posted on January 28, 2021 by LifeZette

Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT), who has long been known as one of the biggest “Never Trump” Republicans in Congress, spoke out on Tuesday to say that in order for “national unity” to be achieved, Republicans must admit that Joe Biden legitimately won the presidential election.

Romney Sends Message To Republicans

“There is no question that the nation is divided now, and there is a lot of anger,” Romney said during an online forum presented by the Economic Club of Chicago.

“To the people on my side who say an impeachment trial is going to inflame passions more. I say, first of all, have you gone out publicly and said that there was not widespread voter fraud and that Joe Biden is the legitimate president of the United States?” he added. “If you said that, then I’m happy to listen to you talk about other things that might inflame anger and divisiveness.”

‘But if you haven’t said that, that’s really what’s at the source of the anger right now,” Romney said. “There are many, many Republicans, almost three-quarters, who believe democracy itself has been stolen. That a very passioned perspective. You’ve got to have that get to the rearview mirror before you talk about the next stage.”

Romney Talks ‘National Unity’

Romney, who has spent the past few years dividing our country and our party even further by relentlessly attacking Donald Trump, went on to say what he feels needs to happen for there to be “national unity.”

“I would also say if you want to see national unity, you really have to rely on truth and justice,” the Utah senator said. “Justice being carried out is something which the American people expect. Five people died with the attack on the Capitol. Five human beings died. There’s no question but that the president incited the insurrection that occurred.”

“To what degree and so forth is something we’re going to evaluate in the trial that will proceed,” Romney said. “How culpable is he? That’s something we will evaluate.”

“But to simply say, ‘Well, we’re gonna just move on because we need to be united,’ would not be, I think, consistent with the history of justice as applied in our country,” he concluded. “And I believe it’s an element of unity, which I look forward to having resolved so that we can move on.”

This piece was written by James Samson on January 28, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

The post Romney Says Republicans Must Admit Biden Won Legitimately For ‘National Unity’ appeared first on The Political Insider.

RNC Says They Will Be Neutral If Trump Runs In 2024 – But Polls Show GOP Voters Definitely Won’t

Posted on January 28, 2021 by Becky Noble

The Republican National Committee (RNC) says it will not actively back former President Donald Trump should he decide to run again in 2024 and will remain neutral in the contest.

RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel said in an interview with the Associated Press that, “The party has to stay neutral. I’m not telling anybody to run or not to run in 2024. That’s going to be up to those candidates going forward. What I really do want to see him do, though, is help us win back majorities in 2022.”

Republican National Committee head declines to encourage former President Trump to run again in 2024, saying the GOP would stay neutral in the presidential primary. RNC Chairman Ronna McDaniel also describes the QAnon conspiracy theory as “dangerous.”https://t.co/Xa9EF9pgGK

— The Associated Press (@AP) January 27, 2021

There Are Visible Differences In The GOP

2020 Senior Advisor to the Trump campaign Jason Miller says that is exactly what Trump wants to do.

Miller says the president, “made clear his goal is to win back the House and Senate for Republicans in 2022.”

But there are some visible fissures in the Republican Party. All is not well for 2022.

A perfect example of that is the recent sniping between Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Liz Cheney (R-WY).

Gaetz, a strong and vocal supporter of Donald Trump, flew to Cheney’s state of Wyoming to campaign against her, after she voted to impeach President Trump.

When Gaetz announced he would go to Wyoming to help “inspire” voters to oust Cheney, her office responded with snark, stating, “Rep. Gaetz can leave his beauty bag at home. In Wyoming the men don’t wear make-up.”

"Rep. Gaetz can leave his beauty bag at home. In Wyoming, the men don’t wear make-up.” – Liz Cheney

— Hoodlum (@NotHoodlum) January 24, 2021

There has been a lot of speculation as to what Donald Trump’s future plans might be, aside from helping the GOP in 2022.

Indications are that Trump won’t just be helping the GOP, but trying to reshape it as well.

There has been talk of Trump starting a third party. Donald has even come up with a name for it, the “Patriot Party.”

Reports indicated that Trump was using the specter of a third party to hold Republicans in line on the upcoming impeachment trial.

Instead, The Donald has apparently decided to primary challenge “Never Trump” Republicans.

It was also reported that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was “pleased” about impeachment, saying he thought that it might help to “purge” Trump from the Republican Party.

What McConnell and the rest of his crowd don’t seem to realize is that he may very well “purge” Republican voters, angry at the party for dissing Trump.

A poll from Axios shows that Republicans side with Trump over McConnell – big time.

There has also been belief that Trump may start a media outlet to rival Fox News.

Trump has been highly critical of the conservative news channel since the early call for Arizona for Joe Biden on election night.

What happens when the boss descends from the luxurious Editor-in-Chief office @ordinarytimemag to compete in the arena of ideas? @trumwill rehashes the now infamous Fox News Arizona call on Election Night 2020 and the recent firings that sprang from it https://t.co/km7QbG9wwM

— Andrew Donaldson (@four4thefire) January 21, 2021

America First vs. America Last

The divide within the Republican Party may be just this simple, but simple isn’t always without casualties. There is clearly now a Trump wing of the party which includes guys like Matt Gaetz.

That fact makes the Mitch McConnells and the Liz Cheneys of the party crazy.

Gaetz’s America First vision of a strong economy, peace, low taxes and regulations, and less government interference – the things that Trump ran on in 2016 – have more of an attraction to average Americans.

What Trump called the “America Last” agenda consists of sending American troops hither and yon for indefinite periods of time, not standing up to the liberal Democrat agenda, and voting to impeach a president that his supporters feel is the only one listening to them.

The Cheney/McConnell types support the latter vision.

And they seem to be hanging on for dear life to the idea of Democrat “unity.” The definition of which is usually means ‘Republicans shut up and cave to Democrats.’

The Numbers Are In Trump’s Favor

A Rasmussen survey released on Tuesday said that 56% of Republican voters “believe that Trump should either probably or definitely run for president again in 2024, or at least be a political power figure.

Fifty-three percent believe a third party is a good idea.

ICYMI: Most GOP Voters Say Trump Third Party Is a Good Idea.

Red Sky in Morning, RINOS Take Warning?

Crosstabs with Party Splits … https://t.co/Oi7JuvDSOF pic.twitter.com/dgbn87JnbT

— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) January 27, 2021

The aforementioned Axios poll has a whopping 92% of Republicans agreeing that Trump should be the GOP candidate for President in 2024.

The post RNC Says They Will Be Neutral If Trump Runs In 2024 – But Polls Show GOP Voters Definitely Won’t appeared first on The Political Insider.

191 Year Old Philly Newspaper Publishes Article Titled “Is It Wrong To Compare Trump To Hitler? No”

Posted on January 28, 2021 by John Hanson

The Philadelphia Inquirer’s David Lee Preston recently wrote an opinion column in which he defended comparing Nazi Germany dictator Adolf Hitler to the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump.

The title? “Is it wrong to compare Trump to Hitler? No.”

The Inquirer was founded in 1829 and is considered the newspaper of record in the Delaware Valley.

The @PhillyInquirer published an op-ed today — Holocaust Memorial Day — titled: "Is it wrong to compare Trump to Hitler? No."https://t.co/5K3NiwvSwg

— Mike Brest (@MikeBrestDC) January 27, 2021

Author – Laughably – Tries To Compare Trump To Hitler

Is it wrong to take this column seriously? Yes.

But for argument’s sake, Preston writes, “Many people find it offensive to use the Holocaust as a yardstick for the political excesses of the last four years that culminated in the storming of Washington on Jan. 6.”

“They believe that to mention Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler in the same breath, as Spike Lee did on Sunday in an awards speech, disrespects the millions of innocent victims and survivors, diminishing the enormity of the Nazis’ crimes,” Preston added.

To be clear, as everyone in the world knows, Hitler systematically exterminated six million Jews, and launched a war that killed tens of millions of people.

Preston lists other examples he believes justifies the comparison.

Then he tried this comparison, “Are my fellow Americans who breached the barricades and broke into the halls of Congress different from the Germans who thought they were doing their patriotic duty by burning synagogues and shattering Jewish-owned shops in 1938?”

Preston continued, “By defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord,’ Hitler wrote in 1925 in Mein Kampf, adding that ‘in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility.”

Is it wrong to compare ⁦@PhillyInquirer⁩ to a news organization? Yes | Is it wrong to compare Trump to Hitler? No. | Opinion https://t.co/vV0A2MwlX1

— Dan Gainor, I'm Spartacus (@dangainor) January 27, 2021

‘Is It Sacrilegious To Suggest A Link Between Hitler And Trump?… I Don’t Think So’

Preston goes on and on and on painting Trump as being in the same shameful space as Hitler.

He finally finished with, “It is sacrilegious to suggest a link between Hitler and Trump?”

“I don’t think so. I’d say it keeps us vigilant for the warning signs.”

Much like Democrats who are trying to compare the criminals who ransacked the Capitol to organized terrorism – and worse, comparing any Trump supporter to terrorists – Preston is way off the mark.

Which might be the understatement of this young century.

Spike Lee compares Donald Trump to Hitler https://t.co/w8xKyuh1wU

— The Guardian (@guardian) January 25, 2021

Literally Nothing Compares To The Absolute Horror Of Hitler And The Holocaust

There are few, if any, human atrocities more ghastly in the history of earth than what Hitler and his German army did to the Jews of Europe in their time.

Systematic mass genocide at a rate so gargantuan and grotesque that the tragedy stands as the forever example of what we should never forget, so that it never happens again.

Whether you agree or disagree with Trump, his politics, his actions as president, his tone or manner, nothing he has ever done remotely compares to human beings trying to exterminate another entire group of human beings so methodically and heartlessly.

And if we’re objectively looking at the record, we’re talking about a President who went to battle with his own government while trying to end wars – and who successfully achieved four Middle East peace deals.

Peace deals between Arab states and Israel, the Jewish state.

Quite, very un-Hitler like, no?

It is also beyond absurd to imply that Americans who voted for Trump are comparable to the rise of Hitler.

Ironically, what these comparisons attempt to do is to dehumanize vast swaths of the American population.

If Trump supporters are comparable to actual Nazis, then anything is theoretically justified in order to silence, ostracize, defame, and marginalize them.

That’s over 70 million people.

Criticize Trump’s actions. Denounce his politics. His words. His way of expressing things. His tone, his anything.

But out of respect for the millions lost, including your own family, stop trying to use one of the worst tragedies in history as a political tool in the here and now.

As divided as Americans are, we simply must be able to agree that mean tweets are not the same thing as systematically exterminating millions of human beings.

If not, this country is in big trouble.

The Philadelphia Inquirer should know better – conflating Trump w/ Hitler on today of all days is 1000% wrong – the memory of 6 million Jews the non-Jewish victims deserve better than this politically motivated hack’s OpEd https://t.co/wyaTdc870C

— Mitch Roschelle (@Mitch_Roschelle) January 27, 2021

The post 191 Year Old Philly Newspaper Publishes Article Titled “Is It Wrong To Compare Trump To Hitler? No” appeared first on The Political Insider.

Reports Of Donald Trump’s Political Demise Are Greatly Exaggerated

Posted on January 22, 2021 by Christopher Barron

In 1897, a newspaper in New York printed the obituary for American novelist Mark Twain. The only problem? Twain was in London on a speaking tour and very much alive.

When asked about the printing of the obituary by a reporter, Twain famously quipped, “the reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”

For the last few weeks, the mainstream media and the Republican establishment have told us repeatedly that Donald Trump’s political career and his influence over the GOP is at an end.

GOP Establishment, Media Want Trump Gone

Writing in the National Review this week, noted ‘NeverTrumper’ Dan McLaughlin said, “for the first time in five years, it is possible to propose or promote conservative ideas without having to go through or around Donald Trump.”

McLaughlin went on to note:

Trump’s influence will linger to an extent that is yet to be tested, but unless and until he returns to win another presidential nomination, his monopoly over the Republican Party — over its access to power, its communications with voters, its reputation and ideals — is broken.

This is far from the first time that the press has told us that Trump’s political future is at an end. Indeed, this is probably closer to the 100^th time they have made this proclamation.

@ChrisRBarron Besides, the non-Trump wing of the GOP kept undermining the GOP’s and Trump’s chances of wins in name of country over party. Those Trump Haters got what they positioned to happen, so why are they complaining now that the GOP is out?

— Yossi Gestetner (@YossiGestetner) January 22, 2021

From the very first day he came down the escalator to announce his candidacy, to his attack on John McCain, to the floor fights at the convention, to the Access Hollywood tapes, to the Russia hoax, to the Ukraine hoax, to the first impeachment, and the list goes on and on and on and on.

The cycle of these stories is always the same. Event happens, event gets completely blown out of proportion by the media, establishment Republicans pile on Trump hoping to finally get rid of him, and in the end – Trump ends up just as popular, if not even more popular, with his base.

Trump Supporters Can’t Be Tricked Or Browbeaten

This cycle of “the end of Trump” is no different than the first 99, and the outcome – much to the disappointment of Dan McLaughlin and the rest of the Trump Deranged – will be no different either.

Donald Trump will emerge from this “scandal” with an even stronger and more committed base.

Why? The answer, is actually not that difficult to discern. For Trump supporters, this isn’t about Trump, it’s about them. They rightfully see the attacks on Trump as attacks on them – and with good reason.

For all of the Trump hating conservatives who believe Trump didn’t accomplish enough, what exactly did the GOP accomplish under the leadership of Romney and Ryan?

— Chris Barron (@ChrisRBarron) January 22, 2021

Since Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” comment back in 2016 up until today, the left, the mainstream media and the establishment GOP has orchestrated an unprecedented attack on the voters who support Trump.

Instead of focusing on policy differences with Trump, they have instead lobbed attack after attack on the people who elected Trump in the first place.

They have accused Trump supporters of being hillbillies, racists, xenophobes, bigots, and now seditionists.

CNN host Don Lemon recently went as far as to accuse all Trump supporters of being on the side of Nazis and the KKK:

“If you voted for Trump, you voted for the person who the Klan supported. You voted for the person who Nazis support. You voted for the person who the alt-right supports. You voted for the person who incited a crowd to go into the Capitol and potentially take the lives of lawmakers … You voted on that side, and the people in Washington are continuing to vote on that side.”

It’s Not Trump They Hate – It’s YOU

By failing to focus their attacks solely on Trump, but instead choosing to attack his voters as well, every single one of these hyperbolic “scandals” fail to actually do long-term damage to Trump and to his brand.

Bush left the GOP in shambles after the 2008 election with a popular vote loss for McCain of 7+ (Trump lost by 4.5 point); only 41 seats in the Senate (GOP has now 50); 178 seats in the House (GOP has now 212) and an approval of 29% (Trump left at 41% in RCP). https://t.co/v0HsPAcuRV

— Yossi Gestetner (@YossiGestetner) January 22, 2021

Indeed, these “scandals” have quite the opposite effect, serving only to deepen and harden Trump’s support among his base.

The reports of Donald Trump’s political demise are greatly exaggerated, and the mainstream media, the left and the establishment of the Republican Party can thank themselves for keeping Trump’s brand and power intact.

The post Reports Of Donald Trump’s Political Demise Are Greatly Exaggerated appeared first on The Political Insider.

President Trump’s Farewell Speech: ‘We Will Be Back’

Posted on January 20, 2021 by Becky Noble

President Donald Trump told a group of supporters at a ceremony at Joint Base Andrews Wednesday morning that, “We will be back in some form.”

The President and First Lady Melania Trump left the White House for the final time for Florida and Mar-a-Lago.

“We left it all on the field. What we’ve done has been amazing by any standard,” Trump said. The First lady also spoke.

In a goodwill gesture, Donald Trump said this morning of the incoming administration, “I wish the new administration great luck and great success. I think they’ll have great success.”

Trump also said he had left a note for Joe Biden in the White House.

Trump’s Record Features Many Successes

Always one to tout his accomplishments, mainly because no one else but conservative media would, Trump talked about things such as a new branch of the military, the Space Force, tax cuts, and a pre-pandemic booming economy.

Donald Trump just delivered his final speech as President of the United States…

WATCH: https://t.co/qh9cMJeNID

— Dinesh D'Souza (@DineshDSouza) January 20, 2021

And the Trump administration did do amazing things. The Space Force takes over some duties from the Air Force, a lot of which will have to do with satellite technology, GPS, and intelligence gathering.

The Trump tax cuts were some of the most consequential in decades, and allowed American workers to take home more of what they earned. This helped to create the booming economy. On November 24, 2020, the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached an all-time high of 30,045.84 points.

Unemployment for nearly every demographic also reached all time lows. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, African-Americans enjoyed the lowest unemployment rates since the 70’s.

The Era Of Biden/Harris

But as Donald Trump makes his way to Florida to begin his life as a former president, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris prepare to take office.

For most conservatives, this is a sad day. One that we did not think we would see, at least for another four years.

Already, Biden has promised to reverse much of the success America has enjoyed for the last four years.

This morning, President Trump speculated as to whether or not Joe Biden will raise taxes. “I hope they don’t raise your taxes, but if they do I told you so.” Trump said.

Guess what, Joe Biden already said he would raise your taxes. When someone tells you what they are going to do, believe them.

Biden is expected to unleash 17 executive orders aimed at reversing Trump policies – particularly on immigration.

Do They Really Think Trump Is Going Away?

Donald Trump will spend the next few days or weeks doing what most ex-presidents do, relax and play golf. He has more than earned that.

Most conservatives will no doubt say that they have never seen such hatred and vitriol directed at one man and one family. It was downright pathological.

But the things that the leftist media says about Trump are quite different from what those who know him say.

Over and over one hears about Donald Trump’s energy and his work ethic. Most that have worked with him say they have never seen a man his age with so much stamina. At 74, he puts in a longer day than a lot of people half his age.

The one question that anyone who follows politics is, does anyone think that this is the end of the political road for Donald Trump?

Does the left really think that he is just going to live out his days, peacefully and quietly at Mar-a-Lago, surrounded by grandchildren?

A good guess might be… not a chance.

There has been plenty of speculation about the next political moves for Donald Trump. One theory is that he might start his own media empire.

In a report from Axios in November, Trump talked about starting his own media company as competition for Fox News, who called Arizona early on election night for Joe Biden, and may have swung the election to the Democrats.

Third Party Chatter

During that last days of his administration, Trump has been at odds with members of the Republican Party, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has been rumored to support impeachment.

There seems to be increasing speculation that Trump may want to start a third party. There is no doubt that 74 million people feel that rampant voter fraud took place in 2020, and that their votes were thrown out.

There is also increasing anger at the Republican Party, who most of those 74 million feel have abandoned them to play go-along-to-get-along with a Democrat Party who will control the federal government. The phrase “uniparty” is being tossed about a lot.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Trump has discussed starting a new political party, to be called the Patriot Party. https://t.co/lSlebhuiOh via @wsj

— Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) January 20, 2021

Could the ‘Patriot Party’ gain traction in a country where third parties have not done well?

With 74 million people who the Democrats call racists and white supremacists every chance they get, and a Republican Party whose current leaders want to go back to the pre-Trump days of the McCain-Romney-McConnell “lose with honor” strategy, the Patriot Party with Donald Trump at the helm just might have a fighting chance.

As he left for Florida, Donald Trump said, “We love the American people,” and that being president had been “the honor of a lifetime.”

He ended his remarks by saying, “I just want to say you are amazing people. This is a great country. It has been my greatest honor and privilege to be your president. I will always fight for you.”

It might be that a good chunk of the American people are not done fighting for Donald Trump, either.

The post President Trump’s Farewell Speech: ‘We Will Be Back’ appeared first on The Political Insider.

Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene – I Will File Articles Of Impeachment Against Biden The Day After His Inauguration

Posted on January 14, 2021 by Rusty Weiss

Newly elected Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is vowing to introduce articles of impeachment against Joe Biden the day after his inauguration.

Greene (R-GA) announced her intentions during an interview with Newsmax on Wednesday, the day House Democrats and ten Republicans spent all of eight hours impeaching President Trump for a second time.

She cites Biden’s alleged links to his son’s business dealings with China as motivation.

“We cannot have a president of the United States [Biden] that is willing to abuse the power of the office of the presidency and be easily bought off by foreign governments, foreign Chinese energy companies, Ukrainian energy companies,” Greene insisted.

“So on January 21, I will be filing articles of impeachment on Joe Biden.”

On January 21st, I’m filing Articles of Impeachment on President-elect @JoeBiden.

75 million Americans are fed up with inaction.

It’s time to take a stand.

I’m proud to be the voice of Republican voters who have been ignored. #ImpeachBiden #QuidProJoe #BidenCrimeFamily pic.twitter.com/E83s1iOoVF

— Marjorie Taylor Greene (@mtgreenee) January 14, 2021

Marjorie Taylor Greene Will Deliver Articles of Impeachment Against Biden

Greene will no doubt be dismissed due to her past associations with Qanon and 9/11 truthers but look at her argument on its face.

75 million Americans are fed up with inaction – whether it involves election integrity concerns or actions by Democrats who consistently escape scrutiny for stepping over legal bounds (Hillary’s emails, Barack’s actions in trying to take down a political opponent).

And it is time to take a stand.

Democrats have wielded impeachment like some sort of political toy over the last couple of years. President Trump hasn’t become the only president to be impeached twice because of his actions, but because of the unhinged actions of his adversaries.

Impeached over a mundane phone call to the Ukraine president. Impeached over a speech in which he repeatedly urged protesters to make their voices heard “peacefully.”

There is far more evidence of Biden being bought off by foreign governments than there is of Trump’s wrongdoing. And that, using Nancy Pelosi’s own words, makes him an “imminent threat” to “our democracy.”

There are clear grounds for this.@mtgreenee is correct.@JoeBiden was give %10 (more in actuality) of Hunter’s ill gotten gain from Ukraine.

Plus Beijing Joe was involved in the transfer and laundering of Chinese funds…this MUST be addressed… https://t.co/3xFNWqS20d

— Tony Shaffer (@T_S_P_O_O_K_Y) January 14, 2021

Biden’s Abuse of Power

Hunter Biden announced after the election that an investigation into his “tax affairs” had been opened in 2018. There were Senate committees and subsequent reports that indicated inquiries into Biden’s son.

A documentary out prior to the election claimed Hunter’s numerous business deals in China “served” the communist country and their military.

Tony Bobulinski, a former business associate of Hunter’s turned whistleblower, claimed president-elect Biden discussed business dealings with his son, and suggested the Democrat is also compromised by the Chinese Communist Party.

An email obtained by Fox News at the time appeared to outline a payout for Biden in a joint venture with a Chinese energy firm.

It included a proposed equity split of “20” for “H” and “10 held by H for the big guy?”

Bobulinski, in an interview with Tucker Carlson, insisted the ‘big guy’ is a reference to Joe Biden.

Hunter Biden’s former business partner Tony Bobulinski: “I 1000% sit here and know that ‘the big guy’ is referencing Joe Biden”https://t.co/CDtS3zSI7P pic.twitter.com/HlttD5WOPw

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 28, 2020

A supplemental report produced by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R-WI) claims documents contain new evidence “that confirm the connections between the Biden family and the communist Chinese government.”

Senators release new evidence tying Hunter Biden business to communist China, Russian energy https://t.co/5de8JNbTeg

— Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec) November 19, 2020

Greene was part of a group of House Republicans who met with President Trump in late December to discuss challenging the election results in Congress.

She noted other lawmakers were jumping “on board immediately to #StopTheSteal on Jan 6th” and that they “have more coming!”

Greene and other Republicans who contested the election have been cited by Democrats as the cause for the Capitol riots on that same date.

Greene’s counter-effort to impeach Biden is purely for show, with Democrats controlling the House and none of them likely to vote in favor. But it’s a game the left started.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) suggested he had designs on impeaching President Trump … before he even took office.

“I just know that if I’m going to vote to impeach the man at some point, I would like to be able to look him in the eye on Inauguration Day,” Raskin said in discussing whether or not he would attend Trump’s swearing-in.

Raskin now serves as one of Pelosi’s impeachment managers, tasked with arguing that the President started an uprising by contesting election results, something he himself did back in 2017.

Marjorie Taylor Greene’s impeachment effort against Biden may not be a serious one, but it’s equally as serious as any putrid effort put forth by the Democrats so far.

The post Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene – I Will File Articles Of Impeachment Against Biden The Day After His Inauguration appeared first on The Political Insider.

If Republicans Put America First, They’ll Remove Liz Cheney, Not Donald Trump

Posted on January 14, 2021 by John Hanson

As the House voted to impeach President Donald Trump on Wednesday, much praise was given to Congresswoman Liz Cheney for being one of the ten Republicans who voted to impeach.

Cheney is the #3 Republican in the House, which added weight to her stance.

But it was her father Dick Cheney and his legacy – a legacy she clearly plans to continue – that is arguably the most impeachable offense in American history.

House officially has the votes to impeach Trump for the second time. 10 Republicans vote yes:

John Katko (NY)
Liz Cheney (WY)
Adam Kinzinger (IL)
Fred Upton (MI)
Jaime Herrera Beutler (WA)
Dan Newhouse (WA)
Peter Meijer (MI)
Tom Rice (SC)
Anthony Gonzalez (OH)
David Valadao (CA) pic.twitter.com/shL72IO5sT

— The Recount (@therecount) January 13, 2021

President Trump: Iraq War Was The ‘Worst Single Mistake Ever Made’

President Trump has been at war with the Bush faction of the GOP since he announced his campaign for President in 2015.

Trump was right when he called President George W. Bush and Dick Cheney’s war in Iraq the “worst single mistake” in U.S. history.

“The worst single mistake ever made in the history of our country: going into the Middle East, by President Bush,” Trump told The Hill in 2018.

Trump added, “Obama may have gotten (U.S. soldiers) out wrong, but going in is, to me, the biggest single mistake made in the history of our country.”

Why was it such a colossal mistake? President Trump had an answer for that too.

—@realDonaldTrump: “The worst single mistake ever made in the history of our country: going into the Middle East, by President Bush.”https://t.co/Bi1S6E3aCG

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) September 19, 2018

Cheney Unapologetic About Iraq War, Bush Foreign Policy

“Because we spent $7 trillion in the Middle East,” Trump said. “Now if you wanna fix a window some place they say, ‘oh gee, let’s not do it.’ Seven trillion, and millions of lives — you know, ‘cause I like to count both sides. Millions of lives,” Trump explained.

“To me, it’s the worst single mistake made in the history of our country,” Trump reiterated.

This is a charge President Trump would repeat throughout both presidential campaigns and during his time in the White House.

Today, a majority of Americans agree with Trump on the wrongness of the Iraq War, including military veterans.

But what does Liz Cheney think? She agrees with her father who still says “I was right about Iraq.”

Unbelievable.

Oh: and the only small pockets of opposition to the partnership between pro-war Dems and Liz Cheney to fund Endless War came from anti-war factions on the right and left – could call them "populists". Here's @mattgaetz working with @RoKhanna to denounce this militarism: pic.twitter.com/J1zMjHie4i

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 8, 2020

But Trump’s radical break with the Establishment’s foreign policy isn’t limited to Iraq.

Just weeks ago, Cheney and the Democrats worked hand-in-hand to block President Trump from removing troops from Afghanistan, where we have been mired for 20 years.

In October of 2019, Democrats (and many Republicans) voted overwhelmingly to condemn President Trump’s effort to withdraw troops from Barack Obama’s war in Syria.

Remember when Democrats at least pretended to be anti-war, when Bush was President?

‘America First’ vs. Neoconservative Ideology

But despite all the establishment praise being given to Cheney and a handful of anti-Trump Republicans this week, it is the “America First” foreign policy of Donald Trump that has completely flipped the script on this front in the GOP.

Republican members of Congress like Rand Paul, Matt Gaetz, Thomas Massie, and many others are staunchly opposed to needlessly starting another war like Iraq, and Trump’s position on this issue has largely helped solidify this sentiment among Republican voters.

Donald Trump Jr. has helped too.

This aged well. Bernie should really thank @realDonaldTrump for pulling our amazing troops out of DC’s endless wars https://t.co/GX5JrdNC7R

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) October 10, 2020

Liz Cheney Deserves To Be Removed More Than President Trump

Congresswoman Cheney will continue to pursue a foreign policy agenda like her father’s – one that puts America and our soldiers last.

She will find a more willing partner in a President Biden than she did with President Trump.

If there was an administration that deserved impeachment, it was Bush-Cheney for the disastrous foreign policy they foisted upon America – one that was continued by Barack Obama.

We are still dealing with the repercussions of Obama (and Hillary Clinton’s) disasters in Libya and Syria.

President Trump set a new course for America. Along the way, he secured four Middle East peace deals.

The Republican Party and Congress would do well to remove those who would take us back to the disastrous foreign policy of the past, and continue to build upon the Trump path to peace.

The post If Republicans Put America First, They’ll Remove Liz Cheney, Not Donald Trump appeared first on The Political Insider.